Kyle Lightbourne will be aiming to prove Stoke City were wrong to place the Bermudian striker on the transfer list by firing his way to a new club.

The player exclusively revealed to The Royal Gazette last week that he would probably be moving on from the Potteries at the end of this season.

His contract expires at the end of June and with manager Gudjon Thordarson bringing in a number of new frontmen his chances have been dramatically restricted.

Since playing in the 8-0 defeat by Liverpool in the Worthington Cup, Lightbourne has had only about 20 minutes on the field.

He came on as a substitute towards the end of the game with Wigan and replaced former England international Tony Dorigo after 78 minutes of the Boxing Day game at Bury.

Ironically, against Swindon in the game before the Cup disaster he netted a pair.

Lightbourne spoke with Thordarson at the end of last week and the decision was taken to transfer-list him.

City chief executive John Rudge said: "Kyle had a meeting with the manager and discussed the position with him.

"Basically, we now have an excess of strikers at the club and we have decided to make Kyle available for transfer and see what interest might develop. To do that we have circulated his name and we are effectively testing the water.

"But he still remains in our plans. Kyle is part of the squad over Christmas and in fact could remain so between now and the end of the season if nothing is forthcoming. He is still a valued member of the squad.'' Stoke are due to play Bristol City in the league on Saturday and Lightbourne may well figure, although he may once again have to settle for a place on the bench.

The player has five goals to his credit this season and will look to add to this tally in the limited periods he gets in a bid to attract a suitor.

Lightbourne, who joined City in February, 1997, for a then club record 500,000, said last night that he wasn't aware of any immediate interest in him but anticipated that something might happen early in the new year.

He said the few minutes he had played since being placed on the list were not enough to showcase his talents, but he believed prospective managers were were well aware of what he was capable of.

Lightbourne, who lives in the Birmingham area, some distance south of Stoke, would not be drawn on whether there might be some interest shown from one of his former clubs, Walsall.

The rival Second Division side is located on the outskirts of Birmingham and is the club where he made his name in English soccer.

Stoke will be looking to recoup some of the cash they paid Coventry in any move that would take the player away from the Britannia Stadium, and that might scare off smaller, less wealthy, clubs such as Walsall.

If no-one comes in for the player he will be able to leave for free in the summer, and it may well be that teams aware of this potential situation will wait in the wings until the end of the season.

With no transfer fee involved, any potential buyer would be better placed to meet Lightbourne's financial demands.

Whatever the outcome it seems a new chapter for one of Bermuda's top sportsmen is about to be written.

Kyle Lightbourne: transfer-listed