Preston North End have been told that Greg Dalby will not meet the criteria to be issued with a work permit.

The news came over the weekend and came as a huge disappointment to Paul Simpson as he was keen and confident of snapping up the US Under-20 skipper.

But the midfielder failed to meet all the required criteria to get a work permit and Greg has now departed Deepdale meaning that Simpson's search for a midfielder continues.

"It always is a risk, we understood that when we brought him in but we were lead to believe that all the criteria had been met," Simpson told pne.com.

"The way it works with these Home Office applications is that you have a list of things that need to be followed and we were told that we had all the boxes ticked and that it would be dead straight-forward.

"Unfortunately some earnings that he had before coming over here, we were told that it would go towards the application and would help, but unfortunately they don't.

"We've lost out on it and it is disappointing for ourselves and for Greg but we have got to move on, it's part and parcel of football and the disappointment has got to go quickly and we have got to look to bring somebody else in now."

Simpson must now move on to his next target, a midfielder is still close to the top of his list, especially with the news that Paul McKenna could be out of action until October. The North End boss currently has three fit central-midfielders to choose from, new signing Kevin Nicholls and transfer-listed duo Jason Jarrett and Adam Nowland, but Simmo is also keen to strengthen other key areas.

"We have to move onto the next one, I've said all along that I'm looking to bring a midfielder and a striker in and at the moment my thoughts are focused on bringing the target-man in and we will see how we go with that one and then we will then start looking at the midfielder as well," added the North End boss.