26-year-old Barnsley defender Paul Reid has made a return to his home town this afternoon to join Carlisle United, on loan terms, until the end of the season.

Reid, who made a total of 22 appearances in his first spell with the Cumbrians, moved to Rangers in the summer of 2000 as his growing reputation brought the scouts flocking to Brunton Park.

He had loan spells with Preston and Northampton Town whilst at Ibrox, and made the move to Sixfields a permanent one in June 2003.

He signed for Barnsley the following season, and has made over 100 appearances for the Tykes so far.

John Ward told us: "We're just waiting for the final papers to clear on the deal, and he'll join us tomorrow morning. He's a decent player but, just as importantly, we know that we have got ourselves the right kind of person as well. He needs a bit of football, and we're prepared to help him out with that. He understands that the team is going well, and that he may have to be patient, but he's prepared to accept that."

"As far as loan deals go," he continued, "that has always been a consideration for me. I have to be up front and let people know that I am not going to change a winning team around, but he has listened to that and has already shown an excellent attitude towards the situation that we are in. He has an excellent pedigree, he has plenty of Championship level games under his belt, and we can now see where this leads. It does fill that void that I felt was there. It has been in my thoughts for a while that we needed to strengthen a bit more at the back. We can't afford a problem at the back, with the importance of the games that we have coming up, and Paul gives us that cushion should anything untoward occur."

"We haven't discussed, either with Barnsley or amongst ourselves, whether it will become permanent," he said. "We're happy to get him here until the end of the season, and then we can take it from there."

All transfers remain subject to Football League and FA approval.