CHAIRMAN Kelvin Thomas says he’s delighted with Oxford United’s two new signings, and believes they have given the squad just the boost it needs.

This comes after it emerged that United had turned down Kidderminster’s Matthew Barnes-Homer, who last night joined Blue Square Premier promotion rivals Luton.

Far from being disappointed to have missed out on Barnes-Homer (pictured left), who scored one of the goals when Harriers beat the U’s 3-1 at Aggborough on November 14, Thomas said signing him “wouldn’t have been right for the football club”.

He highlighted Barnes-Homer’s agent’s “excessive” wage demands and the player’s insufficient desire to want to join Oxford as two reasons for not signing him.

Instead, Thomas and boss Chris Wilder plumped for Franny Green and Onome Sodje, taken on loan from Kettering and Barnsley respectively, and both players sparkled in United’s 1-0 win at Forest Green on Tuesday night.

Thomas confirmed: “We had a couple of areas that Chris wanted to strengthen. He felt it was important to bring a couple of players in up front to freshen things up.

“And the two we’ve brought in, I think, fit the mould.

“We think Matthew’s a good player, but we definitely want players here who want to be at this football club, and who will come within our perameters. We’re not going to force things.

“It was in consideration, but Chris and I talked about it quite a bit over the weekend and on Monday and Tuesday, and said it wasn’t for us.”

The loan window closed last night, but United will continue to look to strengthen the squad, with further activity likely in January.

“I was here four years ago when we put ourselves in a good position, and have talked to Jim Smith about that quite a bit,” Thomas added.

“I think we both realise and have learnt from that – and at the time we thought we had good enough players. But we didn’t strengthen then and we have learnt a lesson.”

Neither of United’s new signings will be available for tomorrow’s FA Cup game against Barrow, however, as they are cup-tied.

In other moves yesterday, former United striker Steve Basham joined Hayes & Yeading on a two-month loan from Luton, while ex-U’s midfielder Andy Burgess also left Kenilworth Road, to join Mansfield.