ANDREW Fitton believes Billy Paynter’s County Ground departure is “inevitable”, as Town’s top scorer gets set for a move to Leeds United next month.

The 29-goal striker is almost out of contract and can therefore walk away from the club on a free transfer once his deal expires at the end of June.

Paynter is believed to have turned down a two-year extension at the County Ground with the option of a third season, which would have put him in line with some of the club’s top earners, in favour of the lure of Championship football with Leeds.

And chairman Fitton explained that Swindon’s defeat in the League One play-off final on Saturday almost certainly signalled the end of the front man’s time in Wiltshire.

“I don’t think he will stay,” Fitton told the Advertiser. “We would like him to stay but he is out of contract and if he has an offer from a Championship club - which we suspect he has - then we are never going to be able to compete with that.

“I always thought that if we didn’t go up then it was inevitable he would go. I regret that we didn’t have him on a longer deal, but that was just the way it went.

“We could have sold him in January when we had offers for him, but didn’t take them because we wanted to give ourselves a chance of promotion.

“So he has run down the clock on his contract.

“I’ve been concerned for some weeks that his agent had done a handshake deal and it wouldn’t surprise me if he signs for Leeds.

“Billy Paynter has been a good player for Swindon Town, but Swindon Town have helped make Billy Paynter a good player, and sometimes players can forget that.

“There have been times during his time here when he has struggled, and players often don’t recognise the benefits of having a team built around you and playing every single week. We’ve seen it a million times before - a player scores 30-odd goals somewhere, moves on and doesn’t score at their new club.”

Paynter scored four times in memorable 3-0 home and away victories against Leeds this season, and is expected to join the Elland Road outfit as a replacement for Jermaine Beckford, who moved to Everton over the weekend.

Fitton paid tribute to the 25-year-old’s goals which pushed Town to the brink of the second tier, but expects they could not get anywhere near the sort of wages Paynter could pick up in Yorkshire.

“You need to put it into perspective,” said the chairman.

“In League One, Leeds’ wage bill was nearly three-and-a-half times as much as ours. So if you apply that logic they could be paying him three-and-a-half times more than us. How can we compete with that?

“I wish him well and he’s done a job for Swindon Town. Billy has scored a lot of goals this year and 29 is a fantastic return.

He deserves a huge amount of credit.”