ON-LOAN Middlesbrough full-back Brad Halliday is hoping to follow in the footsteps of Ben Gibson and Ryan Brobbel by kickstarting his career at Bootham Crescent.

Former loan signing Gibson played a key part in the Minstermen's promotion back to the Football League when, at the age of 19, he lined up against Luton in the 2012 Conference play-off final at Wembley.

Gibson had only made one substitute appearance for the Championship club prior to his arrival in North Yorkshire but has since become a Riverside regular and won eight England under-21 caps.

Northern Ireland under-21 international Brobbel, meanwhile, made his professional debut for City last term and went on to score four goals in 20 games during two loan spells.

In between, the 5ft 8in winger received a call-up to Boro's first-team bench at Doncaster and also enjoyed 17 outings for City's Sky Bet League Two rivals Hartlepool this term before returning to Teesside.

Halliday, 19, watched on from the bench as City lost 1-0 at home to Oxford on Saturday and is also ineligible for tonight's FA Cup replay at AFC Wimbledon with his loan having started after the date of the initial tie but he is still eager to make an impact in coming weeks, saying: "The manager at Middlesbrough is hoping I can get a bit of experience and game time, so I can take that back to my home club and maybe perform there. I would also like to help York get some points on the board and move up the table."

Halliday added that Brobbel had recommended City to him and went on to suggest that the latter could be keen on a Bootham Crescent return.

"I got in touch with Brobs and we had a chat," the Redcar-born defender explained. "He told me York are a really good family club and he said that he hopes I enjoy my stay as much as he did.

"He's looking to get back out on loan, so he might be linked with coming back here - I don't know."

City boss Russ Wilcox wasted no time in recruiting Halliday after his former club Scunthorpe considered offering him loan terms.

"I was at Scunthorpe and trained with them for a week but, then, York just rang and said they needed to take me on loan," the Boro teenager revealed. "I think Scunthorpe are keeping an eye on me while I'm here.

"I was supposed to be going there on loan but I ended up here instead, which I am really happy about."

Halliday cleared up any confusion, meanwhile, about his favoured role, having been described as a midfielder on his parent club's official website.

"When I joined Middlesbrough two years ago, I was a midfielder but I am a right back now and I think that's my best position," he suggested. "I like to get up and down the pitch and enjoy attacking and defending."

Having seen City in action for the first time at the weekend, Halliday also felt the team merited more for their efforts.

"I thought we played well and did really well in the first half," he said. "We were unlucky not to get a result and I thought we deserved at least a point."