NEWPORT County boss Peter Beadle has admitted he is trailing Cardiff City striker Andy Campbell, but has poured cold water over claims that a deal has already been struck.
However, Beadle has refuted suggestions that a deal to sign Campbell is as good as agreed and that he will make his debut against Eastleigh on Saturday.
Beadle says he is in the dark over the claims and has confirmed he has not even spoken with the player.
County are waiting to see if Cardiff City will be terminating Campbell's contract, which is expected to happen in the next couple of days, but Beadle has only asked to be kept informed of any developments.
He explained: "There is no latest news with Campbell, I am not sure where the story has came from, it's certainly not from our end.
"The situation is that of course we would be interested in a player like him and from what we can gather Cardiff are going to pay him up and terminate his contract.
"We would love to have him here but there has been no conversion between us and there has been very little contact between us and Cardiff City.
"We have spoken to Cardiff about him and they have confirmed he could soon be available, but that is as far as it has gone. I can confirm that we would like to speak to him, but suggestions that he could be our player by the weekend are about ten steps further than we have actually gone."
Meanwhile, boss Beadle refused to be downhearted after Welling snatched a draw at Spytty Park last night with a last-gasp equaliser.
"I am happy with the way the players performed, although the lads are absolutely gutted, they are in pieces," he said.
"We battled well against a very physical side, although I thought the first goal was a foul on Tony Pennock.
"Sometimes you have to just battle, but we were punished for a little bit of naivety.
"Sometimes you need to concede ground in front of you rather than behind and we were defending too high up the pitch with the equaliser and got caught out.
"However, we are turning in far better and far more consistent performances, we are seven games unbeaten at home now, but we need to carry it on.
"If the players match tonight's performance they will get a good result on Saturday against Eastleigh and that is our next objective."
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