YORK City loan signing Jon Maloney has admitted he would consider a permanent move to Bootham Crescent.

Maloney will be out of contract at Doncaster Rovers at the end of the season and is currently behind fellow centre-backs Steve Foster, Mark Albrighton, Nicky Fenton and Dave Morley in the Belle Vue pecking order.

The 19-year-old defender still hopes he might have a future at the League Two club but should Doncaster boss Dave Penney tell him he is free to leave in the summer he would consider joining the Minstermen.

Maloney, who made his debut in Sunday's 2-0 home defeat to Scarborough, said: "I have only really been in the reserves at Doncaster and not had any first-team football so I have come here for a bit of experience and to help the boys out. I've got a contract until the end of the season at Doncaster and there's still some promise there as I'm a young lad but coming to York will be a good opportunity for me to play games and see what Doncaster say after the month.

"It's a bit too early to say anything about a permanent move but the lads are great and the training ground is a good little facility so I would consider it. I'm from Wetherby as well so it's not too far away from home."

Fatigue, caused by a lack of matches, saw 6ft defender Maloney ask to be substituted after 84 minutes against Scarborough.

The visitors then scored two late goals to secure victory but Maloney pointed out that the defensive reshuffle caused by his departure was unavoidable.

He said: "I was disappointed what happened after I went off but I was pretty tired at the end and was struggling a bit so that's why I was substituted. It's just one of those things. If I had stayed on I could have made a mistake and that would not have looked very good."

Updated: 11:03 Friday, January 07, 2005