Carlisle United thwarted in bid to sign former Hearts keeper

Blues manager Paul Simpson said a proposed deal is off because of a registration issue.

Stewart has been training with United for the last three weeks and had agreed a deal with the Brunton Park club.

But the situation has been dashed – because it turns out the 28-year-old is still registered with another club.

Simpson confirmed to the News & Star that Stewart was the player who had been set to come in as back-up to Tomas Holy following an injury to loanee Jokull Andresson.

“He [Stewart] has come in and has been working with us, and he’s been good to have around,” said Simpson. “Unfortunately this is what’s happened.

“He’s as disappointed as us, because he wasn’t aware that he was still registered [with someone else].

Stewart was with the squad at Reading and had been expected to join the Blues - but the deal is now off (Image: Richard Parkes)

“We have to just deal with it and get on with it. It can’t happen – it’s not going to happen before January – so we’re looking at other things now.”

Stewart had been with the United squad at recent games and was even in the travelling ranks for last Tuesday’s trip to Reading.

Simpson had pinpointed the former Motherwell, Albion Rovers and Livingston man as ideal competition for No1 Holy in the absence of Reading loan man Andresson, who has a shoulder injury.

“Apparently he was registered on an emergency situation [with another club] for a week, but didn’t get de-registered,” added Simpson.

“We’d put all the paperwork in and agreed a contract with him until the end of the season, and we needed an experienced goalkeeper as cover.

“That’s not me being disrespectful to Gabriel [Breeze] – he’s a young goalkeeper who hasn’t played a single minute of league football, so it would have been a lot to expect.

“So now what we’re going to have to do is look around, and we’re going to have to have something lined up in case we need an emergency loan goalkeeper in [should anything happen to Holy between now and January].

“That’s the challenge we’ve got. It’s been three weeks that this has been ongoing now, and we thought we were there.

“The paperwork went in on Tuesday, and we’ve just found out late this [Thursday] morning that the registration can’t be done. We have to deal with it. It’s no fault of ours, it’s just one of those mishaps.”

Teenager Breeze is in line to be on the bench again in this weekend's League One trip to Blackpool, with Andresson out until the new year.

“He [Breeze] is still a promising goalkeeper,” said Simpson, “[but] the truth of it is, for four weeks now since Jokull did his shoulder, we’ve been looking at what the free agents are. Players who are not registered with clubs.

“We got knocked back on a few who were happy to just keep training and take a chance in January.

“That’s where we are. There’s very little out there in terms of goalkeepers who will come in and give us that experienced cover.”