Town may take trialist Jeff Cassar on the tour of Denmark next week. The Blues are looking for keeper cover with Keith Branagan not yet fit after his operation and the former Dallas Burn player may be the man the Blues look to.

Town boss George Burley says that he will liaise with Malcolm Webster before making a decision: “We need some experienced cover and I will be talking to our keeper coach Malcolm Webster to discuss various possibilities due to the fact that Keith is not ready yet.”

Branagan says he has only just started actual goalkeeping and is still sore. He is reckoned to be up to three weeks away from match action.

Cassar, 28, joined Bolton on loan on deadline day last season but succumbed to a knee injury, a frequent problem throughout his career, and was released having made no appearances. Currently he is available on a Bosman.

The highly-rated stopper, from Livonia, Michigan, moved to Bolton from the Dallas Burn where he was in his second spell with the club. He'd only re-joined them from the Miami Fusion in a dispersal draft two months earlier, the Fusion having been disbanded by the MLS.

Earlier this summer he was reported to be back training with the Burn and had been linked with Sheffield, although the report doesn't specify which Sheffield.

The 6'2” keeper started 46 games in his three years with the Fusion posting a 1.75 goals-against average.

In 1998 he was voted the Fusion's BIC Tough Defensive Player of the Year by their local media and was rated both the top league keeper and overall American player by Soccer America magazine.

He has represented the United States at the Olympics, and at U20 and U18 level as well as gaining one full cap.

Cassar, apparently a latter day Paul Cooper when it comes to penalty saves, is a Smashing Pumpkins fan.

Earlier this week another American keeper Ian Feuer was linked with a short-term Town contract, however, this now looks unlikely. The former Luton and Rushden and Diamonds man has been training with Town while he looks for a new club, Italians Fiorentina having been linked.

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