Nugent deal was close

Nugent joined Burnley on loan right at the end of the summer transfer window of 2009. He struggled initially to cement a place in the side and started only two league games, against Birmingham and Blackburn, before Christmas but then became a regular starter in the side.

After missing the home game against Chelsea, when he was forced to return to Portsmouth, a second loan deal was done to keep him until the end of the season but he was back to the South Coast after that and the only suggestions of a move back north came with links to Bolton and Blackpool.

Now, manager Brian Laws has revealed that we were close to getting a player he wanted to help boost our promotion hopes.

Laws said: "He was tremendous for us last year and we were very much trying our hardest to get him again this year to no success. It wasn't far away but not close enough."

As always, it came down to money. "It was the financial side of things more than anything else," Laws added. "Dave was on a substantially high amount of money at Portsmouth and we certainly couldn't match that."