Francis Jeffers jets in for trial Down Under

AUSTRALIAN side Newcastle Jets have flown out former Arsenal, Everton and Rangers striker Francis Jeffers to assess him for a ten-week guest stint with the club.

Jeffers, who had a loan spell at Ibrox in 2005, arrived in Newcastle last weekend and has been training with the Jets under the watchful eye of head coach Branko Culina.

Jeffers as been a free agent since being released by Sheffield Wednesday in May and sees the chance to join the Jets as a way to re-ignite his career.

"You can see he has got a better touch than the average player, but his fitness is a fair bit off, You can only help that if you are training I suppose," Culina said.

"But we will make a decision on him in the next couple of days. We don't want to keep him here for too long if we don't sign him,"

Culina feels 29-year-old Jeffers does not fit easily with his side's style of play, but with skipper Michael Bridges sidelined for another two months with a knee injury and New Zealand international Jeremy Brockie also injured, the Jets are in dire need of a proven goalscorer. "It would require us to change our style of play, but if it meant scoring goals I would be prepared to do that,"