DANIEL Keir must feel like he is living the dream for Worcester City at the moment — despite the fact few will even know he is at the club.

The Canadian goalkeeper has been thrust into City’s FA Cup adventure just weeks after arriving in this country to study at the University of Worcester.

Following the remarkable, yet far from ideal, scenes that saw Wayne Thomas deployed as an emergency keeper against Harrogate Town last month, City played it safe.

With Jose Veiga still recovering from the knee injury sustained in that match - in which preferred number one choice Nathan Vaughan was rested - Chris Gemmell was drafted in against Greenwich Borough in the cup.

But the former Rushall Olympic keeper was nowhere to be seen for the league trip to Leamington on November 1 and City were again left without cover.

However, there was no way Heeley was going to take such a risk against Coventry City, who themselves saw keeper Lee Burge sent off in the first round clash.

Keir was approached and took his place among the substitutes for what turned out to be Worcester’s greatest victory for more years.

The sport business management student, who has been on the bench since without being called on, said: “It was an unreal experience. It’s kind of difficult to put into words.

"In Canada, the biggest crowd I’d ever played in front of was probably around 100 people, so to experience a stadium the size of the Ricoh Arena and hear the atmosphere generated by the crowd was incredible. In Canada we obviously don’t have anything like that in football terms, so it was just unreal.”

Born and raised in Canada to an English mother and Canadian father, Keir, a student at Ontario’s Brock University, chose to undertake the third year of his four-year course in Worcester.

He said: “My parents are both keen on football, so they got me into it from a young age. I would play ice hockey in the winter and football in the summer, and I played for local teams when was I was growing up.

“I started playing in goal at the age of about 15, then went on to represent the university team and managed to play at a fairly high level in Canada.

“I came to England with the intention of playing for a local team over here, but what has happened – at the speed at which it’s happened – is unbelievable.”

Keir will be hoping to be in the squad against Scunthorpe on Sunday week and, should the Blue and Whites progress, knows who he would like in the third round.

“My mum is from Norwich, so they have always been the English team that I’ve followed,” he said.

“We’re taking it one game at a time but, if we do get to the third round, I’d love to draw Norwich.”