Ian Miller has revealed he turned down the opportunity of working with former England international Terry Butcher to join Darlington.

The Ipswich Town centre-back has signed for Quakers on an initial short-term loan which Darlington manager Dave Penney wishes to extend until at least January.

Brentford, managed by Butcher, who played in the same position as Miller, were hoping to convince the 23-year-old to join them.

But Miller opted to rejoin Darlington where, last season, he had a seven-game loan spell which saw Quakers concede just two goals.

He explained: "Ipswich gave me the chance of going to Brentford or to come back here and I had no hesitation in coming back.

"Brentford is closer to Ipswich and also Terry Butcher is there, maybe I could have learned a lot for him. But the way I saw it was that I got treated well here last season and it's nice to feel wanted by a club.

"I could have taken the option of going to a club that is an hour down the road but I felt I had unfinished business with Darlington so I wanted to come back.

"It's a great squad, I like the way the manager works, the training is brilliant and they're a great bunch of lads.

"I spoke regularly to Dave throughout the summer, he was monitoring my progress, seeing how I was getting on.

"I enjoyed my first spell here, it was just unfortunate that I got recalled by Ipswich but didn't really get used."

Miller missed Tuesday's defeat at Barnsley as Ipswich did not want him cup-tied, so Penney gave a debut to Alan White.

Steve Foster is sure to be one of Penney's certain starters each week, so Miller and White are battling it out for a place alongside the skipper.

"I'm not expecting to come here and go straight into the team," said Miller.

"I know I've got to prove myself worthy of getting into the team and work hard so that I get in on merit.

"The manager has brought in Alan and Steve and they have been doing a good job and it's up to me to prove I am better than them.

"Obviously I rely on my pace a little bit but I need experience. I've only played 20 league games and I'm up against two centre-backs that have played 300 games so I'm definitely not expecting to walk into the team and I am happy to fight for my place."

Full-backs Neil Austin and Tim Ryan both sat out the Carling Cup defeat on Tuesday having picked up minor injuries in last weekend's win over Wrexham, but Penney is hopefully they will return for Saturday's trip to Accrington Stanley.