Stephen Astwood's quest to become a professional soccer player has led him to English club Peterborough United.

The Island player, who had it not been for work permit problems would have already been playing for Preston North End, had been on trial at First Division Portsmouth.

But while there was to be no opening for him on the South Coast, the Posh of Division Two have stepped in with the offer of another trial.

Astwood was one of a number of Bermudians who have been in England recently in the hope of realising their dreams.

Others have been put under the microscope at Premiership sides Middlesbrough, Manchester United, West Ham and Spurs.

"I've seen a lot of lower league football and he's (Astwood) is ready to play for Peterborough right now," said Paul Scope, who in addition to Bermuda national coach Mark Trott and former West Ham star Clyde Best, has been instrumental in establishing links with the English sides.

"He received a strong recommendation to Peterborough and they are definitely very keen to look at him."

Astwood did turn out for Portsmouth but unfortunately was injured before he could showcase his goalscoring talents.

"Stephen did well at Portsmouth," said Scope. "But unfortunately he came on as sub in a reserve team match and immediately got injured. But he had already shown enough in training for them to be reasonably impressed with him."

Part of the reason Scope believes that Portsmouth did not extend Astwood's stay was because they were looking for more experienced players. They had tried to sign Brazil's Romario and former Newcastle ace David Ginola without success, but finally secured the signature of former Arsenal star Paul Merson.

"Although Portsmouth are in Division One they are really trying to gear themselves up to get into the Premiership this year and are throwing a fair amount of money at experienced players," he said. "That is where their focus is."

Prior to going up to Peterborough, Astwood joined fellow Islanders Dennis Russell and Raymond Beach at Spurs.

The latter pair played alongside Tim Sherwood in a match against Ipswich, which also featured a number of the Suffolk side's first teamers.

"They acquitted themselves well coming off the bench," said Scope. "But the suggestion from (Spurs' director of football) David Pleat and the Spurs' staff was that (while they were not ready for Premiership soccer) they were probably ready to play in the lower divisions and were certainly strong enough and have the potential to do that."

Pleat, he said, was prepared to recommend them to any club lower down the pyramid.

Of the remaining eight players on trial, Damon Swan, Dion Stovell, Domico Coddington, Takehyi Walker, Trevor Smith, Jason Dill, Shannon DeShield and Angelo Simmons, Scope said they were returning from England more experienced, but unfortunately without any offers in the bag.

"Our expectations were that the young guys were way short of Premiership standard and that was fairly evident from early on," he said. "They are not going to be picked up by the clubs and it's just shown that we have a lot of work to do in the 16 to 18 age group, for example.

"The Premier League clubs have come on so much over the last ten years and we probably haven't kept pace so the guys found it very hard and were well short of the standard required."

Today's opening match of the Women's Summer Soccer Tournament between Elizabethtown College and PHC Zebras will get underway at Saltus School Field (6 p.m.) instead of the National Sports Centre.

Tomorrow's fixture between Millersville University and Rude Girls (6 p.m.) has also been switched to the same venue.