Oxford United continued their policy of capturing players who are hungry for first-team action as Ian McGuckin signed a three-year deal with the club.

The 27-year-old left-sided centre back yesterday joined the U's on a free transfer from Fulham under the Bosman ruling.

And like manager Denis Smith's other three summer signings - Richard Knight, John Robertson and Manny Omoyinmi - McGuckin is desperate for regular first-team football.

He had a wretched time at Craven Cottage, falling out with their former manager Paul Bracewell. "After I joined them, the club was transformed enormously with so much money pumped in to bring in new players, and I never got a look-in," he said. "To begin with, I got a bad knee injury, but last season they had Kit Symons, Chris Coleman and Andy Melville, and I was completely out of the picture."

Smith tried to sign McGuckin when he was at Hartlepool during his previous spell at the Manor, but McGuckin turned Oxford down and Smith signed his centre-back partner Phil Gilchrist instead.

After 150 appearances for Hartlepool, McGuckin joined Fulham in May 1997 for 100,000.