York City manager Terry Dolan has again moved to strengthen his defence by snapping up former Northern Ireland international Darren Patterson.

The 31-year-old centre-back has signed on a three-month contract after training with the Minstermen for a couple of weeks.

Patterson, who was a free agent, had been plying his trade with Scottish Pre-mier Division side Dundee United for two seasons after moving to Tannadice Park in July 1998.

He played in half the Terrors' games in his first season in Scottish football, how-ever injury problems curtailed his chances last term - he made only six ap-pearances towards the end of the campaign - and he left the club by mutual agreement with manager Paul Sturrock in May.

He has since been kept out of action this term by an Achilles tendon injury, but was reportedly recommended to Dolan by City striker Alex Mathie, who had played and trained with Patterson at Tannadice last season.

The 6ft 1in Belfast-born stopper played for Northern Ireland Under-21s and has 17 full caps to his name, five of which came in 1999 during the Euro 2000 quali-fying campaign.

He began his career with West Bromwich Albion but failed to break into the Bag-gies' first team and moved to Wigan, where he starred for three terms. A switch to Crystal Palace saw him play just 22 games in three seasons at Selhurst Park, after which he moved to Luton Town for the 1995-96 season.

He stayed at Kenilworth Road for three years, which included a brief spell on loan at Preston, prior to his switch to Scotland.