Kyle Lightbourne is on the road again... this time in a 425,000 ($692,750) transfer to struggling First Division team Stoke City.

Coventry, who only signed Lightbourne last summer, lost 75,000 on the 500,000 they paid Walsall for the Bermudian striker.

Coventry manager Gordon Strachan began the transfer process on Sunday night with a phone call to Lightbourne informing him of Stoke's interest.

About 12 hours later the move was complete, with Lightbourne signing in time to be eligible for tonight's vital relegation battle with Bury.

"It's a three-and-a-half year contract so Stoke are just taking over the current contract that I was on,'' said Lightbourne, who explained that his salary would remain the same.

"Obviously that could have been a stumbling block but they knew the position of my wages, so they knew what they were dealing with.

"That obviously saved a lot of time. I met with two of the directors, had a medical and everything was sorted out before 12.00.'' Lightbourne, who travelled with the Coventry team to Aston Villa for their FA Cup match on Saturday but was not on the bench, was surprised by the quick development.

He weighed up the limited chances at Coventry and spoke with his wife before making the move. He also thinks a pending transfer may have been behind Strachan's decision not to allow Fulham to have Lightbourne on loan for another month.

"I got a call from Gordon Strachan at 10.30 and he asked if I wanted to go and speak to them (Stoke),'' he explained. "Then (manager) Chris Kamara called me about 15 minutes later and I met with them this morning.

"Dion Dublin and Darren Huckerby have performed really well this season so it was difficult even to get on the subs' bench. Gordon Strachan has been good to me, I have no regrets signing for Coventry. I learned a lot in my time there.'' When Lightbourne makes his debut he will have played in all four divisions in England. The first of his four clubs was Scarborough who released him in April, 1993.

"Going out on loan has done me a lot of good, scoring three goals for Fulham, and that may have been one of the reasons why Coventry didn't want to extend the loan,'' Lightbourne stated. "They may have had some interest and if I had gone on another month's loan it would have got close to the transfer deadline.'' The two top Second Division clubs had also tried to sign Lightbourne in the last few weeks, with Shawn Goater's Bristol City having a bid turned down and division leaders Watford also failing with a bid just before he joined Fulham on loan.

However, Stoke, founder members of the Football League in 1888, succeeded where the others failed as Lightbourne became the first signing of Kamara who only recently took over at Stoke.

He apparently remembered Lightbourne from when he was manager at Bradford City as Lightbourne scored two spectacular goals against his team two years ago in a league game.

"That was the first thing he mentioned to me,'' said Lightbourne.

"I thought this was the best thing for me to do. There is an opportunity for me to play first team football and it's up to me now to get myself playing and up and running again.

"There is a game tomorrow (today) and they wanted me to sign in time. They have had a problem this year with strikers. They have enough strikers but most of them have been injured and long term injuries as well.'' Lightbourne's immediate task is to help the club move away from the relegation zone. They are presently 20th in the 24 team division, from which three teams will be relegated. Just three points separate them from second-from-bottom Bury.

"I am the manager's first signing so hopefully I can repay him by scoring some goals and keeping them up,'' said Lightbourne. "I just hope we can stay up and get a fresh start at the beginning of next season.

"Stoke were one of the clubs interested in me in the summer. I know of one or two people in Bermuda who are Stoke City fans.

"Gerald Sims, who played in goal for BAA, was always asking me to get a Stoke tracksuit for him. I always remember that and now it's amazing that I have ended up at the club.''