CARL Burley says new signing Mark Bellingham is being paid the same as all Causeway United players — absolutely nothing.

The former Stourbridge and Leamington hotshot, a prolific marksman on the local non-league scene for the past decade, joined United last week from Sutton Coldfield Town and scored in his debut against Atherstone United last Saturday.

Burley claims Bellingham is playing for free and says any talk otherwise is disrespectful to the club.

He said: “I’ve heard a few things said, just as I did when we brought in Matt Gardner last month.

“I can assure you neither of them are being paid at Causeway because there is no-one here to pay them.

“It’s a bit disappointing when you hear things like that but I can’t stop the rumours.

“It takes away from the fact we have been able to attract these players.

“I’ve tried to sign Mark before and it was he who contacted me asking if he could join.

“Naturally I jumped at the chance to bring a player of his quality on board.”

Burley believes the addition of Gardner and now Bellingham to the duo of Aaron Lloyd and Stuart How means Causeway now boast the strongest attacking line in the Midland Alliance.

But it didn’t help them on Saturday, as Atherstone fought back from Bellingham’s early goal to snatch a 2-1 win, with Burley later admitting he had got his tactics wrong.

He added: “With Bello coming in we decided to go for it and started with three up-front, which was a bit of a bold move.

“In fairness after the first 20 minutes we could have been out of sight but we didn’t take our chances. After a while they settled down and began to stifle us. We couldn’t ge the ball to the forward three.

“I would not say we under-estimated Atherstone but I felt why not use our attacking players?”

Causeway hosted league leaders Westfields last night but are without a game on Saturday, before returning to action when they host Heath Hayes on Tuesday.