The Blades can now confirm that they have brought in Sunderland's Nyron Nosworthy on loan until 24th May, following the earlier arrival of Fulham's Tony Kallio

The double swoop solves Kevin Blackwell's concerns about defensive strength and cover in the light of Matt Kilgallon's departure.

With Andy Taylor joining Gary Naysmith on the casualty list and Jonathan Fortune in danger of being asked to do too much too soon, the United manager is now confident that his squad has the strength in depth to mount a promotion charge:

"I will be delighted if that is the end of our business by 5pm and no-one has left. We haven't received any bids but there have been whispers which I was worried about, but fortunately nothing has materialised.

"I would like to think now that we would only have to use the loan system in the event of an emergency because I want to get this squad settled as quickly as possible."

Ex Gillingham man Nosworthy, 29, was Sunderland's Player of the Year three seasons ago and Blackwell has no doubt about the value of his acquisition:

"We needed a quality centre-half who had pace and Nyron is a terrific defender who has played a lot of Premiership games with Sunderland.

"He has a good reputation in the game, fits the bill and we had to fight off competition from Portsmouth to get him.

"We first spoke last Friday before we left for WBA and he was very impressed with what he saw down here."