Town boss Kieran McKenna says new loan signing Dan Neil is ready to feature in tomorrow’s home game against Preston North End.

The 24-year-old joined the Blues from hometown club Sunderland earlier in the week.
 
“He’s ready,” McKenna said when asked whether the midfielder was OK to be involved against the Lilywhites. “He’s been training hard at a good level with good players.

“He hasn’t had many match minutes, hasn’t started a game since August, so match fitness is a little bit different and he’s going to have to build that up as and when his minutes come here, and what we’re doing in training with him to get him as close to that as we possibly can. 
 
“But he’s trained all week with the group, trained well and he’ll be involved in the game.”

Reflecting on adding Neil, who captained the Black Cats to play-off final success last season, McKenna continued: “We’re pleased to have him in. I think it was a department that we were a little bit lighter in after letting Cam Humphries go [on loan to Huddersfield], so we knew that we wanted to add a midfielder and have four midfielders in the unit, if we say Marcelino [Nunez] now has played more minutes as a 10 for us. 
 
“It’s pretty clear, he’s got good Championship experience, amazing experience last year. Good player, has played as a six, has played as an eight so he fits into our system well in a couple of different roles.

“Brings good leadership with football IQ and he’s a good lad who’s fitted in well already this week.”

Photo: Matchday Images/ITFC