CORTEZ Belle's planned loan move to Newport County was dramatically called off last night after his club, Chester City, ordered him back.

But Chester manager Ian Rush has been told by his chairman Stephen Vaughan that there is no money to spend on new players and he is now keen to have Belle back and the hitman has been named in the Chester squad for tomorrow's trip to Shrewsbury in League Two.

The former Merthyr Tydfil hitman has been training with the Exiles for the last month as he served a five-match ban after picking up his third red cards this season and he was expected to put pen to paper this week.

County manager John Cornforth said: "We were hoping to sign him this week but unfortunately he has been told to go back to Chester.

"It is disappointing but I still hope that something can be sorted."

The change of heart is a blow to County as it had been hoped that Belle would make his debut in tomorrow's clash against Eastbourne Borough at Spytty Park (kick-off 3pm).

It is sure to be a stern test for Cornforth's side as the visitors are in a rich vein of form and have risen to occupy fifth spot in the Nationwide South, occupying the last play-off berth.

"They are a hard-working, very physical side," Cornforth said. "They are a good outfit, so we will be up against it."

The Exiles boss knows his back division is likely to be tested once again, after surviving last week's test at Grays, with recent signing Yemi Odubade on fire at the moment.

He has grabbed five goals in three appearances since signing from Yeovil early this month. "He has lightning pace," said Cornforth, "so we will have to be wary of that.

"They don't have the same pace down the flanks that Grays had but we will look at our formation again.

"I thought we defended well last week and kept our shape and we will need to do that again. "We have won our last two home games and hopefully we can keep that run going."

He added: "We are the home side and I will be looking to get a positive result but we are getting to the stage in the season where performances don't matter, it's all about getting points on the board.

"We scored in the last minute to beat St Albans a couple of weeks ago and I would take that every week.

"There a few more teams that have been dragged into the equation now and everything you get can be important."

Cornforth will be looking at the fitness of Chris Curran, who came off last week with a thigh strain and also Chad Bond, who should be fit but may be on the bench as he has not trained for more than a week.

Newport County (from): Delve, L Phillips, Morgan, D Jones, Curran, Thomas, Morris, Davies, G Jones, Williams, Hooper, Bowen, Moralee, O'Sullivan, J Phillips, Evans, Mouncher, Brimfield, Passmore.