Rufus Brevett has signed for a second month at Oxford United.

The vastly experienced left back, who celebrated his 37th birthday two weeks ago, is on a month-to-month contract with the U's.

The first month ended today, but Brevett has signed an extension to carry on as Gavin Johnson's replacement while the former Ipswich and Northampton defender continues his comeback from a torn hamstring.

Johnson is making good progress, and has been doing some ball work in training, but realistically it's a couple of weeks before he can be considered for first team action.

And what happens then?

Manager Jim Smith said there were options open to him to play both players, should he want to.

"Rufus can play in midfield, he can also play our wide if you want, and Gavin's the same, he can play in one or two positions.

"We need a strong squad and we can't just say 'oh, we've got a left back, we'll let one left back go'. We're lucky that Matty Day can perform there, and has performed there, but you need as many good players around you as you can have."

He added: "Gavin's done remarkably well. He'll be in, if not full training next week, very close to it, and the week after when the reserves are playing Ipswich, he could well be playing in that.

"But as well as he's done, you've got to be looking at another fortnight because we'd probably want him to have maybe two reserve games before he's consid- ered."

Smith is mulling over whether to keep the side unchanged for tonight's Nationwide Conference game at Forest Green Rovers, or freshen it up because the U's are in a hectic spell of five games in 15 days.

He said: "With the games as they are in such a short period of time, there's not a lot of work you can do on the training pitch, you have to keep the players ticking over and making sure they've got the energy levels up for tonight.

"It's literally going from one game to another. But we've had Forest Green watched, I've had a very good report on them, they've got a new manager and new belief.

"Phil Gilchrist played against Southport with a bruised toe, it's improved a little, but everybody else is OK.

"The only question is, because of the Saturday, Tuesday, Friday games, whether I bring a couple of fresh legs in, or whether I leave it, because we've got a Tuesday game again next week."

Smith has been delighted by the advances shown by striker Rob Duffy, who has now scored eight goals in nine appearances since joining the club in the summer.

"He's done extremely well and the most pleasing thing is that he's getting better. These last two games have probably been his best two games over 90 minutes for us."