JOHN COLLINS has taken another step in his bid to cure Hibernian’s goalkeeping problem by recruiting one of Petr Cech understudies at Chelsea. Yves Makaba Makalamby, a Belgium youth international, has arrived on trial at Easter Road.

The 20-year-old was recommended to Collins by contacts in England and with Petr Cech and Carlo Cudicini returning to full fitness, José Mourinho, the Chelsea manager, who has had Hilario take over in goal and Magnus Hedman on stand-by, was happy to let Makalamby travel north.

Collins jettisoned Zibi Malkowski last weekend after the Poland goalkeeper’s string of mistakes, the most recent being in the Edinburgh derby defeat by Heart of Midlothian on Boxing Day. The Hibernian manager handed the jersey to Andrew McNeil, the Scotland Under-19 goalkeeper, last Saturday and McNeil’s two clean sheets since then have put him in pole position.

However, Makalamby now has a chance to stake his claim as back-up. Signed on a free transfer from PSV Eindhoven in 2003, Brussels-born Makalamby has 18 months of a four-year contract at Stamford Bridge remaining.

“I made some phone calls down south and his was a name which was thrown at me,” Collins said. “José was happy for him to come up for us to have a look at him. He’s young but it’s quality that counts.

“Chelsea have any number of goalkeepers and have Cech and Cudicini returning. You find the big boys look for experience and have that in every position but we have to go for young players.”

Harry Redknapp, the Portsmouth manger, was at Easter Road to cast his eye over Kevin Thomson and Scott Brown as they faced Aberdeen on Tuesday. The pair, in whom Rangers and Charlton Atheltic have expressed an interest, want bigger contracts despite signing new deals with the Edinburgh club last March.

However, Redknapp is uncertain whether Portsmouth will make a bid for them. “I just tell our chief executive Peter Storrie who I want and he tells the owner [Alexandre Gaydamak],” Redknapp said. “I hope we can get one or two new signings but I don’t know how much money will be available.”

Collins insisted yesterday that, while he was disappointed at being forced to settle for a draw with Aberdeen, a similar performance at Pittodrie next week will enable Hibernian to progress to the fourth round of the Tennent’s Scottish Cup.

“In the first half we played beautiful football and probably deserved goals at the end of some of our moves,” the manager said. “We didn’t manage to put the ball into the net and had to settle for a point but we continued to try to do the right things to the end of the game.

“There was 100 per cent commitment and effort from the players, there was a terrific will to win and, without a doubt, it gives us great optimism for next week.

“They will have to come at us a lot more in front of their own fans so it should be easier for us to get in behind them and if we play as we did yesterday then most weeks we will win, that’s for sure. One thing we’ll be working on between now and then will be shooting drills.”

Motherwell have rejected a bid from Southend United for Scott McDonald. The 23-year-old Melbourne-born striker has scored nine goals this season and has 18 months left on his contract at Fir Park. He joined Motherwell in January 2004. His previous clubs include Southampton, Bournemouth and Huddersfield Town.