YORK City boss Billy McEwan has ended a one-month pursuit of Scunthorpe United striker Daniel McBreen by signing the experienced Australian on a one-month loan.

McBreen, 30, will go straight into the squad for tomorrow's home match against Histon after agreeing an initial four-week spell with the view to a longer stay.

The 6ft 1ins forward joined Scunthorpe from Falkirk in the summer of 2006, but injury and the likes of Billy Sharp, Andy Keogh, Jermaine Beckford and Paul Hayes have limited his opportunities to ten senior outings for the Iron.

At Falkirk, McBreen was a member of the 2005 Scottish first division title-winning side, scoring 13 times in a 40-goal partnership with Darryl Duffy, who now plies his trade with Swansea.

McBreen, who has also played in Australia for Newcastle Jets and Adelaide City and in Romania for Universitatea Craiova, went on to net eight times in the Scottish Premier League, including once during a 1-1 home draw for Falkirk against Rangers.

His last game for Scunthorpe, though, came 11 months ago and he has been told he is free to find new employers by the Championship club, despite having eight months left to run on his contract.

With Craig Farrell out for another two weeks because of a thigh problem, Richard Brodie serving the final match of a three-game ban tomorrow and broken jaw victim Chris Beardsley sidelined for three months, McBreen's arrival will provide McEwan with greater attacking options and the City manager said: "Daniel's a player I have been looking at for a while.

"Scunthorpe have been trying to get a striker in so we've had to be patient, but they've got Ben May in from Millwall and that's enabled us to bring Daniel in. He was wary of coming into the Conference but we have persuaded him to join us.

"He got injured last season and could not get back into their team, but he's a big, strong Aussie and left-sided which is helpful. He gives us another avenue to go down in our squad and Scunthorpe need to get him out to play because he's only been getting reserve football."

City skipper Manny Panther, meanwhile, is rated as "70-30" for the game after limping out of Sunday's 1-1 draw at Oxford with a hamstring problem. Panther has also returned to Scotland this week for bereavement reasons and McEwan will turn to Russell Fry or Nicky Wroe if his captain is unavailable.

Fellow midfielder Ross Greenwood is unlikely to deputise despite playing 90 minutes for the reserves after recovering from his fractured wrist, with McEwan saying: "He did well but he's well short of the level of match fitness we are looking for."

Goalkeeper Tom Evans is set to return after being replaced for the last seven games by on-loan stopper Stephen Henderson, who has gone back to Bristol City.

McEwan is looking to bring in another 'keeper as competition for Evans but, in the meantime, is hoping to gain permission from Liverpool to name 18-year-old Josh Mimms, who is on work experience at KitKat Crescent, as a substitute.

The City boss went on a scouting mission with ex-Manchester United 'keeper Harry Gregg to run the rule over Mimms' father Bobby 26 years ago.

Gregg and McEwan, then a rookie coach at Rotherham United, persuaded Millers manager Emlyn Hughes to pay Halifax Town £15,000 for Mimms, who later went on to play for Everton, Tottenham, Blackburn and the Minstermen.

The City boss feels Mimms junior could be a chip off the old block, saying: "Watching him is like a flashback because he's got a lot of Bobby's mannerisms."

McEwan warned against taking Histon lightly, adding: "Like most teams who come up from the levels below they are used to winning and that momentum stays with them in the early parts of the season. They are a big, strong physical side who will get the ball forward quickly."


City (probable): Evans, Purkiss, McGurk, Kelly, Robinson, Brayson, Panther, Elliott, Woolford, Sodje, McBreen.

Subs: Mimms, Craddock, Parslow, Fry, Meechan.

Histon (probable): Naisbitt, Pope, Ada, Mitchel-King, Gwillim, Okay, Kennedy, Cambridge, Knight-Percival, Akurang, Murray.

Subs: Osborn, Langston, Barker, Wright, Hipperson.

Referee: Paul Curry (Northumberland).