Dave Penney's new-look Darlington defence is beginning to take shape after the club signed Steve Foster, captain of League One champions Scunthorpe United.

Quakers announced yesterday morning that the experienced centre-back has agreed to join the club to play alongside Alan White who joined last week.

Foster has turned down a two-year contract offer at Glanford Park and the chance to play in the Championship next season in order to team up with Dave Penney once again.

He was a mainstay at the back throughout most of Penney's successful time in charge at Doncaster Rovers, being made captain at Belle Vue.

With Foster hardly missing a game, Rovers won promotion from the Nationwide Conference and League Two before joining Scunthorpe in January of last year.

The Mansfield-born defender, last week named the Iron's player of the year, has made close to 450 appearances with over half of them coming in a five-year spell at Bristol Rovers before Penney took him to Doncaster in 2002.

Penney said: "It has been no secret that one of my main priorities was to dramatically strengthen the back four. Both Alan and Steve are very experienced defenders and I know they will be a tremendous asset to this club.

"Steve in particular knows what it takes to achieve promotion having been voted Scunthorpe's player-of-the-season.

"This is just the start of my rebuilding and I fully expect to be making more additions to the squad sooner rather than later."

Darlington supporters are reminded that existing season ticket holders have until the end of this month to secure their new season tickets at a reduced rate.

On June 4 unsold seats become available on a first-come, first-served basis at the same price. These prices are available until June 30 and all season tickets will also include one free match-day carvery.