Carlisle United have had to ditch plans to sign Ross Stewart as their back-up goalkeeper.
The 28-year-old Scot has been training with United for three weeks but United have not been able to add him to the squad.
Manager Paul Simpson said: “We’ve had a real disappointment. 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 de-registered, 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 de-registered.
“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 on 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.
“Ross Stewart has 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 young Gabe Breeze, but he’s a young goalkeeper who hasn’t played a single minute of league football.
“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.”
Glasgow-born Stewart has played all his football in Scotland with a variety of clubs including Motherwell, Livingston, Queen of the South and Hearts but all were just a handful of appearances.
He had really made his name from 2015-2017 as an ever-present with Albion Rovers where he made 72 appearances.
