Hot-shot strikers John Barry Nusum and Stephen Astwood are expected to return to Britain over the summer for further trials with Scottish Premier League side, Livingston.

Contrary to reports coming out of Scotland last week, the Island pair have impressed coaches at the club so much that if they improve on certain aspects of their game they may land themselves short-term deals, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

Club chairman Dominic Keane said yesterday that both PHC player Astwood and Wolves' star man Nusum had shown the raw skills needed for the professional game.

He said he and members of the coaching staff would be sitting down with the pair towards the end of the week with a view to inviting them back for pre-season training later in the year.

If they impressed again, Keane, whose side are currently the third force in Scottish football behind Celtic and Rangers, said the pair would probably be offered a one-year deal and then farmed out to a lower league team on loan in order to give them the experience necessary for top flight football.

"Both of them have got talent, of that there is no doubt. Physically, they are very fit. Stephen is much quicker than John, but John is probably a better striker while Stephen has other attributes," said the chairman.

"The report card would be that from the experience they have got I don't think we could have expected much more at this stage from them. But if they want to be professionals, and I know both of them do, then they would have to come back here do a pre-season and go through the whole set-up with us.

"Then probably they would go out on loan to a club just below our level, maybe in the First Division, and get some experience out there preparing for a game every Saturday and Wednesday and so forth.

"I think it's only by playing games at that level that we will see whether the potential that exists comes through."

Last week the pair played with the first team in a match of three 35 minute periods and today they are expected to be put through their paces again.

"In the first 35 minutes both of them struggled a little bit," Keane said of their earlier try-out. "In the second 35 you saw the potential that exists there and in the final 35, to be fair, they got a little bit tired because it was quite a demanding session.

"Since then they have been training and working - but what you have to remember is that we are right in the middle of our season right now, playing two games a week so it has been difficult for them to get as much developmental training as we would have liked. Also, when they have been training they have been with the first team and not the youngsters so they have been right in amongst it.

"It has been a tough shift for them, but I think that is probably what they needed - to play almost at the top end with first team players. Whereas if they had gone to other clubs they might have been training with a youth squad, (with us) they have been thrown right in at the deep end."

Doug Allison, Nusum's coach at Furman University in South Carolina where he has set all manner of soccer records, is in no doubt the player can make the grade somewhere.

"'People were scared of him over here," he said in an interview with the Glasgow Evening News. "He is 6ft tall, has legs like tree trunks and is good in all aspects. Claudio Reyna (Sunderland's US international) came from college level and it is a decent standard.

"'If someone over there can get a hold of him and really push him then they will get a very special talent. He reminds me of the old West Brom player Cyrille Regis.

"'He can be rough and tough, but he also has the skill when required and can finish from all angles. He is definitely ready to go pro somewhere.

"'He has played for the Bermudian team and has broken all sorts of scoring records, so I hope he rises to the challenge in Scotland."