RICHARD Brindley is raring to make his Oxford United debut at Stevenage tomorrow after joining on loan yesterday.

The 21-year-old has agreed to an initial one-month switch from Rotherham United and is likely to come straight into the starting line-up at Broadhall Way.

It fills a key piece of the puzzle for the U’s, who had been searching for a specialist right back after Joe Riley’s loan spell at the club from Bolton expired a month ago.

Brindley is looking to get cracking as soon as possible.

He said: “I think it will do me good to get more games under my belt.

“I’d prefer to be playing week-in, week-out and improving as a player, rather than sitting on the bench, which wouldn’t be right for my development.

“I’m grateful to be a part of Rotherham and being in the Championship getting the odd game here and there, but ideally if I can play week-in week-out, that’s more than enough for me.

The former Chesterfield defender has not played a competitive game for four weeks, but has no problems facing Stevenage if required.

He said: “Mentally I’m ready. Physically I might not be 100 per cent match fit, but I’ll be all right once I get back on the pitch.

“I like to get forward a lot and create things.

“But I have two jobs to do, I have to defend as well and I don’t like conceding goals so I will be looking to do both sides of the coin.”

The short-term move is with a view to extending his stay to a 93-day loan, which means Brindley would be able to feature in all but United’s trip to Newport County on the last day of the season.

He is the club’s second signing from Rotherham in a week, following left back Joe Skarz, who is also set for a debut this weekend after joining on a permanent deal.

It meant head coach Michael Appleton did not have to look far for a reference before going ahead with the move.

“You’ll make a judgement on his footballing attributes, but sometimes you want to find out a little bit more about his character,” he said.

“Joe speaks very highly of him coming from the same club.

“If it’s a nice fit we’ll maybe do something a bit longer.”