Graham Coughlan signs in

Coughlan is an experienced player who has played for both Plymouth and Sheffield Wednesday at this level in the past three seasons, having returned to England after a spell in Scotland with Livingston.

He's from Dublin so that will make him almost a local in our dressing room, and he first came to England when Blackburn paid Bray Wanderers £100,000 for him back in 1994 in the days when Kenny Dalglish was just about to pay for a title.

He never played a game for our local rivals and made his debut in English football whilst on loan at Swindon, playing three games for them in 1997 against Norwich, Southend and Ipswich in what is now the Championship.

His next port of call was Livingston and after a successful loan spell he joined them on a permanent basis for the start of the 1999/2000 signing. Two successful seasons there led to a move to Plymouth, signed by Paul Sturrock, where he enjoyed four years that saw the Pilgrims win two promotions. He played all but four of Plymouth's games during four years at Home Park.

It was Sturrock who took him to Sheffield Wednesday two summers ago and again he was a regular in the side, having a particularly good game against the Clarets earlier this season, but he's recently lost his place in the side, initially through a mouth injury and then sadly following the death in Ireland of his younger brother.

Lee Bullen and Richard Wood are currently holding down the central defensive births at Hillsborough and so manager Brian Laws has agreed to his request to go out on loan. Former Claret Laws said: "Graham requested to go out on loan because he wants to get his head down and play regular first team football and we felt at this time it was appropriate for him to go out on loan until the end of the season.

"Under the circumstances of his recent family bereavement I can fully understand Graham's desire to play first team football and wish him all the best for his spell with Burnley."