MARLON Beresford has landed a dream move to Middlesbrough thanks to the Bosman ruling.

The First Division title-chasers landed the Burnley goalkeeper in a lightning £400,000 raid to ease their injury problems and Beresford will make his debut against Swindon Town on Wednesday night.

Because Beresford would have been free to leave for nothing in the summer under the Bosman ruling Burnley were ready to accept a fee for the 28-year-old keeper, who has signed a contract until 2002.

And Boro boss Bryan Robson was delighted to get his man.

He said: "I have always rated Marlon highly and people have been talking about him as a keeper of great potential for quite a few years now but clubs have been put off by Burnley's asking price of £2m.

"He was out of contract in the summer so Burnley were willing to come down substantially on that figure. We went in for him at just the right time.

"He's a big lad who I think will do well but he is also up for the challenge of fighting for a first team place with Mark Schwarzer and Ben Roberts. All top clubs have fierce competition for the keeper's jersey so it can only help Middlesbrough to have another good keeper here."

Beresford trained for the first time with his new team-mates yesterday after the clubs thrashed out a deal over the weekend and he agreed personal terms on Saturday.

Middlesbrough have leaked 10 goals in their last two games and with Mark Schwarzer and Ben Roberts sidelined with injury, Beresford is set to take over from Andy Dibble for the visit of Swindon.

Beresford, the Clarets' longest serving player after signing from Sheffield Wednesday for £95,000 in 1992, was keen to further his career. That coupled with arguably Burnley's last chance to cash in on the player therefore made sense all round and brought Beresford's Burnley days to an end after 231 League appearances.

Burnley-player manager Chris Waddle said: "Marlon is out of contract and wants to play higher.

"Middlesbrough came in with an offer because they have got a goalkeeping crisis as such and obviously we put it to the club.

"I had a brief chat with Marlon Beresford about whether he would be interested in staying and he said it was time for him to go higher.

"People might say if you are in a relegation battle what are you getting rid of your goalie for.

"But if he's out of contract for the sake of eight weeks surely it is better to get what you can at the time.

"Middlesbrough made what I thought was a good offer and they spoke to the chairman and the board and they thought so as well.

"We wish Marlon well. He has been a good servant of the club but I think looking at him he did need a fresh challenge.

"It's his opportunity to play Premier League football next season if Middlesbrough do go up which everybody thinks they will."

Middlesbrough's initial offer was rebuffed but they quickly followed up with the £400,000 fee which allowed Beresford to complete the kind of dream move he has been linked with several times during his Clarets' career.

Chris Woods replaced Beresford and kept a clean sheet as Burnley drew 0-0 at Walsall on Saturday.

It was Woods' first League game since breaking his leg playing for Southampton at Blackburn at the end of November, 1996.

But the former England goalkeeper, who was also with Sunderland last season, boasts all the necessary experience to help Burnley's relegation fight and their bid to get to Wembley in the Auto Windscreens Shield which continues in the northern area final first leg at Grimsby tomorrow night. And third-choice Tony Parks will be available again next week after completing a month's loan at Doncaster Rovers.

A cut of 20 per cent of the fee received for Beresford must be paid to Sheffield Wednesday under a sell-on clause incorporated in the deal that brought the keeper to Turf Moor.

However, the indications are that Waddle will have some funds made available to strengthen his squad having met the criteria to wheel and deal by selling Beresford.

But the Burnley boss stressed that he will not be rushing out and bringing in new faces for the sake of it.

"It's all right saying go and buy somebody and get two loans in but you have got to improve your side.

"What's the point in bringing two in and have them sitting on the bench or in the reserves until the end of the season?

"Let's be realistic. If you want to bring better players in you have got to bring them in from higher levels. Players earn a lot of money at higher levels and you've got to look for the right player.

"If I think we need to bring a couple in before the deadline I will but at the minute this lot I have got so far has proved they can beat the best. Now it's up to them.

"People might say you must need strengthening because you are bottom of the league but I will not bring someone in for the sake of it. I will only bring someone in if they will strengthen what we have got."

Burnley have been linked with former Sheffield Wednesday striker O'Neil Donaldson, released by the Premiership side last week. But the club today denied that any deal had been signed.

Burnley fans can now pay on the gate for tomorrow night's Auto Windscreens Shield northern final first leg at Grimsby.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.