NOBODY would blame Rory McArdle for wondering: Who’s next?

Reece Burke might be the new kid on the defensive block for City as he still gets to know those around him.

But for McArdle, the arrival of the West Ham youngster just added to the sense of a revolving-door policy surrounding the centre-half positions.

Burke’s composed debut at Oakwell on Saturday made it four different men in the middle alongside McArdle in four league games.

Nathan Clarke started next to the current player of the year on opening day at Swindon – and the Capital One Cup exit to York – before stepping aside for Alan Sheehan and then Gary Liddle at Valley Parade.

The uncertainty in filling the "Andrew Davies" slot on his left shoulder mirrored the indifferent opening couple of weeks.

The signing of a young Premier League defender may now herald a more settled period, especially with Burke’s encouraging display in blunting Barnsley.

McArdle, used to his double act with Davies in recent years, can understand the chopping and changing. But he was full of praise for his latest partner as City recorded their first shut-out.

He said: “It’s been a challenge but it’s not always easy for the gaffer when performance levels aren’t high.

“Credit to Reece, he came in and I thought he was brilliant. You forget he’s only 18 – I wish I was still that age!

“It shows the quality he’s got. I know he played a few games in the Premier League last year.

“He came in on Thursday, got his head down and settled right in. Hopefully I can help him a little bit with the other lads.”

It has been an uncomfortable start to the season for City and Phil Parkinson laid down the law after the timid home loss to Gillingham.

McArdle admitted the air needed to be cleared – and hopes that the clean sheet and much-improved effort in south Yorkshire should represent a fresh start.

“Maybe the season might start now,” he added. “Hopefully this is us going the right way at last.

“Having finished off last year as well as we did, then obviously hearing about all the season-tickets that we’ve sold, we just needed to hit the ground running and carry on.

“But it’s not as easy as that. Let’s hope we’ve had our blip and it’s better to get this out the way now rather than halfway through the season.

“As we said in the meeting, it was good to get it out the way early and nip it in the bud. We knew where we were going wrong.

“People could see that we weren’t closing down properly or putting ourselves on the line. It cleared the air and I think it worked.

“On Saturday we knew we had to start bright and win our tackles which we did.

“They had quite a lot of the ball in the first half and had a couple of chances. But we looked stronger and fitter as the game wore on and maybe could have nicked it on another day.”

McArdle is already the only ever-present outfield player as Parkinson looks to find the right formula within his squad. Keeper Ben Williams has also played every game but his position will come under threat from new recruit Brad Jones.

Both 100 per centers were delighted to keep the back door firmly shut at Barnsley and respond to last week’s “soft-centred” blast from the manager.

McArdle said: “The amount of goals we’ve conceded as a back five has not been good enough. We’re not going to win games conceding sloppy goals – it’s not fair on the rest of the lads.

“So from our point of view as a defence, we were really happy with a first clean sheet. It was a credit to everyone for digging in.

“We had a point to prove after what’s happened and it gives us a platform to build on. Hopefully we can take that into the next few weeks and keep improving.”