Kevin Blackwell has put himself well on the way to assembling the defensive strength in depth he has been looking for with the acquisition of former Burnley defender, Stephen Jordan.

He came in late on Monday - followed a day later by Kyle Bartley - and solved a deficiency that the United boss had been trying for weeks to overcome:

"We have known that the left-back position is a problem because we had only Andy Taylor for that role, and he had two or three injuries last season.

"Stephen Jordan has a Premiership pedigree and a lot of experience in the top two divisions, that's for sure, and with him here we have cover and competition."

However, despite a number of players being unavailable for the Carling cup-tie at Hartlepool on Wednesday night Jordan, along with Nosworthy, won't be able to make his debut:

"He definitely won't play up there because although we have signed him we knew he had a slight calf strain, we think picked up on Portsmouth's pre-season tour in the USA.

"It is nothing serious and he will be okay to play in about ten to twelve day's time. And around that time we will have the International lads back, Matt Lowton finishing his suspension and Nyron and Kyle available so we should have a very competitive unit."