NEW centre-back Chris Doig’s experience will improve York City’s squad between now and the end of the season, according to manager Gary Mills.

Free agent Doig, 30, is due to finalise his move to Bootham Crescent today after leaving League Two Aldershot, where he was playing on a month-to-month basis.

He will contest a defensive place with Chris Smith, Daniel Parslow, David McGurk and Jamal Fyfield and Mills believes his knowledge of the game could prove invaluable.

The 6ft 2in Scotsman spent eight years with Nottingham Forest after leaving Queen of the South.

He made his professional debut in this country, aged 17, in the Premier League at Old Trafford during a 3-0 defeat against Manchester United.

Former England internationals Steve Stone and Dave Beasant were among his team-mates that day and Doig become a regular in the Championship for Forest, where he played 93 games, scoring one goal.

The Dumfries-born defender, above, who was capped 13 times by his country at under-21 level, left the City Ground in 2005 for Northampton, where he was made the Cobblers’ club captain.

More recently, he has plied his trade in Indonesia and Australia, where he shared a dressing room with ex-City striker Daniel McBreen at Central Coast Mariners.

But he returned to England last summer, spending pre-season with Wycombe Wanderers before joining Aldershot, where the Hampshire club did not concede a goal during his one-and-a-half games on the pitch either side of New Year’s Day.

Having left Aldershot, Doig’s former club Northampton were interested in securing his services again but Mills moved swiftly to recruit a player he had targeted earlier this season.

The City boss said: “He’s an experienced, left-sided centre-half who’s a good organiser. He’s a good player who was available and I tried to get him a couple of months ago before he went to Aldershot so, when the opportunity came to bring him in again, I jumped in.

“He was on trial with Northampton this week but I made him an offer and he’s decided to come. I’ve known about him for a long time as he was at Forest for a lot of years and he’s another good signing.

“I believe I’ve made three good signings in Chris, Ben Swallow and Erik Tonne and they have to prove that now.”

Mills also pointed out that Andre Boucaud’s £25,000 move to Luton, which represented a £5,000 profit on the fee the Minstermen paid Kettering for the Trinidad & Tobago international, enabled him to make this week’s triple transfer swoop and might yet result in another addition.

He said: “The decision to sell Andre has enabled me to make these three signings and there might be another one to come. I was willing to let him go to Fleetwood and, when Luton showed an interest, I thought it was the right thing to do to sell him and I have to do what I feel is right for this football club.”