ANDY Harris is ready to sign a new two-year contract with Dorchester - but he can't see himself tolerating longer than one more season in the Dr Martens Eastern Division.

The 27-year-old hard man, senior member of the division's meanest defence last season, is pleading with Magpies manager Mark Morris to try and find someone to score the extra goals he believes the side needs to win promotion next season.

"I long to get back to the Premier Division and if we don't go up next season I don't know what I would do - I don't think I could face football in the Eastern Division any longer," he said. "Some of the places you have to go to and the

pitches we are asked to play on are just terrible and it's very hard to get motivated.

"And now we know what is in store for us at places like Banbury and Burnham I think it will be even harder next season.

"We really should have won promotion this season and it is a bit disheartening when you see teams like Grantham and Hastings going up when you know that defensively we were stronger than them and their strikers didn't seem that much better than ours either," added Harris who passed the 200-appearance milestone for the Magpies last season.

"It wasn't that we didn't make chances either. In most games we had loads of chances and in the games against some of the poorer sides where we dropped points we had ten or a dozen opportunities.

"We just didn't score enough goals and hopefully Mark can find someone to put that right next season. I think we definitely need at least one more striker and another midfield player to replace Jamie Brown who is going to Australia for a year."

The former Bridport player says that whatever happens he doesn't plan to go on playing at Dr Martens level after he is 30.

"My brother Steve played on until he was 33 and his knees went badly," said the Magpies former Player of the Year who helps run the golf course his parents own at Folke near Sherborne.

"I get up sometimes now and my knees hurt and I always said I would play until I was 30 and then devote more time to the golf course which is at its busiest at weekends."

Morris today said he was "optimistic" about agreeing new terms with his two other out-of-contract men, striker Danny O'Hagan, who is currently away on holiday, and Martyn Sullivan.

"I've also got three or four other things in the pipeline," he added.