STUART GIDDINGS has been brought to Darlington as much for his vocal ability as his defensive attributes.

After Steve Staunton was left to rue more sloppy defending last Saturday at Barnet his determination to bring some authority to Quakers’ back four led him to call on his former Coventry City colleague.

Today’s encounter against play-off contenders Burton Albion offers Staunton’s side a chance to secure their first clean sheet of the campaign.

Five seasons ago Giddings looked set to become a mainstay for the Sky Blues, while his performances for England’s youth teams suggested he was destined to follow his team-mate Calum Davenport to a Premier League side.

Serious knee injuries forced the left-back to rebuild his career at Hinkley United, but Staunton is so confident of the 23-year-old’s match fitness and composure he’ll hand him a start this afternoon. The manager expects to hear Giddings barking out the orders.

“Stuart is a proper full-back who gets tight to the wingers and stops crosses,’’ he said.

“He has a bit of quality too and can distribute the ball very well. He knows his position, is a good talker and organises well.

“As I always say, a little bit of talking stops an awful lot of running.”

The defence has lacked an organiser this season – Steve Foster has been asked to shoulder much of the responsibility for marshalling the ranks – so Giddings’ arrival and the return of Ian Miller should give the back four some welcome composure.

Staunton added: “I was at Coventry with Stuart and he was a very promising England Under-19s player but he took a bad injury to his knee and went out of the game because it kept flaring up.

“But he’s played at Hinkley for the last 12-18 months without any recurrence.”

Nathan Mulligan and Mor Diop are both pressing for a start but the manager is determined to ease both into the relegation battle.

“It’s a dogfight every week,’’ reflected Staunton. “Mor has been building up slowly. He’s still not ready for 90 minutes.

He’ll definitely be part of the squad and play some part but we have to manage him properly so we get the best of him in the coming months.”

The absence of Premier League and Championship games this weekend meant that the attendance at Staunton’s weekly press conference was boosted by TV and national newspaper journalists eager to fill air time and column inches.

One of them asked the manager if, following his career with Liverpool, Aston Villa and the Republic of Ireland, he was finding it tough working with a shoestring budget.

Staunton responded: “I’ve come from Dundalk FC. Dundalk never had a penny so this is nothing new to me. You work within your means. I’m not a loser. I don’t like losing.

I know the fight I have got but I’m loving every minute of it.

“It’s better than being at home making the tea and taking the dog for a walk! As you can see it’s a wonderful club and it’s the same thing that’s required at any level – keep the ball out of one goal and put it in the other. Old cliches but they are true.”

Despite his spell as Ireland boss ending in disappointment, Staunton revealed that he’ll send a good luck message to his former players before their World Cup play-off against France this evening.

“I’m Irish, I’m a supporter,’’ he said. “I want nothing more than for us to go to the World Cup. I firmly believe Ireland can go through.”