THE signing of Richie Foran will be the first of several incoming transfers at Darlington over the coming weeks as manager Dave Penney seeks to further fine-tune his squad.

The Southend United forward will link up with Quakers this week, and is likely to make his debut at Brentford this Saturday for fifth-placed Darlington.

But Penney is not completely satisfied with his squad and admits he wants to bring several more bodies in, while there could also be more departures following the exits on loan of Neil Wainwright and Patrick Collins.

Foran will join on loan to play on the left wing, a position Penney has found troublesome this season, but there are other positions in the team that he would like to strengthen.

"We know which areas we want to strengthen but we haven't yet identified which players are going to be available, that will come in the next couple of weeks," said Penney.

"There's a lot of players out there who we may take on a sixmonth loan, or coming to the end of their contracts like Gregg Blundell was last season at Chester.

"He had six months to go, so in that position you can offer a nominal fee because clubs know their player can walk away for free anyway at the end of the season.

"They're the areas we need to look at. There won't be a vast turnover of players, there'll probably be four or five coming into the club and we'll have to see who leaves."

Southend boss Steve Tilson hopes Foran will benefit from his loan spell at the Balfour Webnet Darlington Arena, and he said: "Richie needs to go out and get games. That's why we've let him go to Darlington and it will do him good."

Until recently, left-back John Brackstone was no more than a fringe player and it would have not been a surprise had he been allowed to leave in the January transfer window, but he has started the last two games and Penney's is pleased with the leftback's progress.

Aside from the League Cup tie at Barnsley in the first week of the season, Brackstone had rarely featured but Tim Ryan's hamstring injury has afforded the ex-Hartlepool player a chance during the last two games.

Penney likened the situation to the one which saw him move as a player from Swansea to Cardiff.

He said: "Sometimes it's difficult coming to a new club and he has taken some time to settle."