NEILL Byrne is keen to get playing again as he prepares for an immediate Doncaster debut.
The City defender signed on loan yesterday and is set to be thrown straight in against Leyton Orient tonight.
Byrne, whose contract is up at the end of the season, had featured only eight times in League One for the Bantams and jumped at the chance of the move.
He said: “I heard about the interest late last week. I had a good conversation with the manager and really wanted to get it over the line.
“I want to get games and help the team in any way possible, whether that’s bringing a bit of experience to the team or my leadership qualities. Playing games is the big thing for any footballer.
“I had a little injury coming into the season and then had a good influx of games after that and then over the December, start of January period I haven’t played as much as I would have wanted to.”
Doncaster pipped City to the League Two title last season but are currently third from bottom after a difficult campaign. They blew a three-goal lead to draw with Wigan at the weekend.
Byrne told the club website: “It always seems to be a tough team to play against. It excites me in terms of the style of play and the front foot actions of the gaffer’s teams.
“It’s something that I definitely feel I can come in and add my quality and help the lads.”
Byrne trained for the first time with Doncaster yesterday and boss Grant McCann is confident he can slot straight in.
“He’s ready to go,” said McCann. “He’s not been involved in the last two or three Bradford games but he’s played 10 or 11 this season, so he’s been in and around their squads.
“But the benefit of him not playing at Bradford is we’ve been able to bring him here.
“He was really high on our list and we’re thankful that Bradford let us have him. We’re looking forward to helping him and hopefully he helps us.
“It was important that we got the right one and we feel that we have. It was experience for us really.
“His character is really good. He’s been involved in promotion teams and all the previous managers he’s had, particularly Dave Challinor, were speaking really highly of Neill.
“He’s everything we want in a centre half. He’s experienced, he’s a leader, he can shift and has got decent pace on him and he’s calm on the ball.
“I think he’ll add a little bit of nous that’s probably been missing for a while. He’ll bring a calmness.”
Share