VETERAN Simon Charity has pledged his future to the Bluebirds after rejecting a move to his old club Paulton Rovers.

Charity, 29, moved from Paulton to Hardenhuish in 1998 and was close to agreeing a switch to the Southern West Division side this week.

Paulton submitted a seven-day transfer request last week, but after talking to both managers concerned the defender decided to finish the current season with Chippenham.

He wants to help the squad towards promotion to the Conference South and to win the Southern League Cup and Wiltshire Premier Shield.

Charity, who is Chippenham's current longest serving player said: "I made my decision and that is the end of the matter, but I was seriously thinking about it."

The man nicknamed Scorch by his teammates was almost lured by the attraction of first team football but feels he has an important role to play at Chippenham.

"We all work hard during the week and get ourselves geared up for a game of football on Saturdays and it is disappointing when you sit on the bench. But I weighed up the pros and cons and although it was a difficult decision I could not turn my back on the team now.

"We are chasing promotion and two cups and I want to help the team win things this season," he added.

He still has friends at Paulton and admits it was difficult to turn down a move. Charity, who lives in Trowbridge, is having one of his most frustrating seasons, having occupied the bench for most of it.

But he is deternined to carry on and believes he will have the chance to shine again for Chippenham soon.

"We have been really lucky with injuries and the other players have done extremely well. There will be injuries and I'm sure I will feature again this season."

The club has taken Charity through promotions and a Wembley appearance in the FA Vase and he feels it would be the wrong time to leave the team that has given him so many fond memories.

He also thanked the fans for their support this week as he had several of them approach him after the 2-0 win against Merthyr Tydfil and asked him to stay.

"When I got here in 1998 we played in front of 100 people, now we are playing in front of more than 900.

"It was good to hear a few of them passing comment over the transfer and the supporters were part of the reason why I turned down the switch."

Charity is happy with most of his performances and feels he can still help the squad.

"I have done well in most of the games I have played in. I had a bad game against Salisbury and that was a bit of a low point.

"There are quite a few games to come and I still have something to offer the team."