FORMER Burnley keeper Marlon Beresford has returned to his roots to ease relegation-haunted Sheffield Wednesday's goalkeeper crisis.

The 31-year-old Middlesbrough shot-stopper -- who left Burnley in March 1998 in a £500,000 deal -- has struggled to command a regular place at the Riverside and returned to Hillsborough today on a month's loan, the place where he started his career.

It means rookie keeper Chris Stringer has been saved from facing the in-form Rovers firing line at Ewood tomorrow.

Stringer had looked favourite to start between the sticks tomorrow.

He made a memorable debut for Wednesday as a substitute for the red-carded Kevin Pressman just 13 seconds into the Owls' opening game of the season at Wolves.

And he impressed against Rovers in a 1-1 draw at Hillsborough back in August. The teenager was also called into action for the injured Pressman last week in a 2-1 FA Cup win over Norwich.

But the introduction of Beresford has stopped him adding to his five appearances so far this season.

Owls boss Paul Jewell has been forced to rely on youngsters like Stringer but the addition of Beresford will bring much needed experience to the side. Beresford joined Turf Moor for £95,000 from Hillsborough in 1992 and became something of a cult figure, playing almost 300 games in his six years there.

His move to Middlesbrough was a disappointment to Burnley fans but Bereford struggled to command a regular first team place, stopped at first by Mark Schwarzer and then in the summer, Boro signed up Mark Crossley to push Beresford down to third in line.

Beresford is hoping a loan move to Wednesday could resurrect his career -- and help Jewell's battle to avoid the drop.

The former Bradford City boss knew he was taking on a club crisis when he succeeded Danny Wilson in the summer but even he must have underestimated Wednesday's fragile financial plight following relegation from the Premiership.

Established players like Peter Atherton, Ian Nolan, Petr Rudi, Niclas Alexandersson, Richard Cresswell and Pavel Srnicek have all been allowed to leave in an effort to slash the wage bill.

And, of the squad that remains, senior stars like Wim Jonk, Andy Hinchcliffe, Simon Donnelly, Phil O'Donnell and Andy Booth have spent the majority of the season in the treatment room.

But, with debts approaching £14 million, Jewell has had to discard his cheque book and put his trust in trainees like Stringer, Owen Morrison, Anthony Crane and Matthew Hamshaw to fill the void.

And the culling shows no signs of abating with Hinchcliffe and Gilles De Bilde seemingly next for the exit door as Wednesday aim to reduce costs even further.

It's not surprising, therefore, that Jewell twitched nervously in the directors box at Ewood on Wednesday night as Rovers tore Preston to shreds in a stunning opening 20 minute blitz.

"We've got to work extremely hard and not make it possible for teams to come at us," said Jewell.

"Blackburn will come at us like they did in the first half against Preston. They were excellent going forward and could have had a few more.

"We've not been playing flowing football but we've got to continue to be hard to beat. In our last three games we've won two and drawn one, conceding just one goal in the process.

"And we'll have to perform to similar standards over the rest of the season if we want to stay up."