Manager Paul Simpson provided an update on the goalkeeper who has been training at Brunton Park.
“We’ve had a real disappointment,” he admitted. “We were hoping to have a goalkeeper signed which I’ve talked about in my last couple of interviews. There was an issue over the paperwork and that isn’t able to be resolved.
“We’ve now found out he’s still registered with a club. Everybody’s understanding was that he had been deregistered, but we’ve had to knock that one on the head.
"I’m really disappointed with that because we’ve had him in with us for three weeks. Apparently he was registered on an emergency situation for a week, but didn’t get deregistered.
“It’s been three weeks 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 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.
“I think everybody was aware it was Ross Stewart and he’s been really good to have around. He’s as disappointed as us because he wasn’t aware that he was still registered. 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.”
“We needed an experienced goalkeeper and that’s not me being disrespectful to Gabe, but he’s a young goalkeeper who hasn’t played a single minute of league football,” he continued.
“We’re now in a situation where we need to get something lined up so if we do need to do something in an emergency situation then we’re ready. For this weekend we’ve got Tomas and Gabe available, and we’ll keep looking to try and get the right one in.”
And on the other free agent who had trained with the Blues, he said: “I decided he was too far off it, I can’t be in a position where I’m bringing players in to get them fit.
“They need to come in and be fit and be ready to make an impact so I had to just shake his hand and wish him all the best.
“He’s left, but there’s lots and lots of other work going on in the background trying to get players who we can actually get into the building on 1 January so they are ready for our game at Exeter.
“We’ll continue to work on that and hope that we can get some reinforcements in to come and strengthen the group.”
