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The footballing siblings – whose father, David snr, played for Leeds United in the 1970s – started out in the game at Oldham Athletic as teenagers.

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But since then their paths have gone in different directions and taken in various ports of call.

Striker David's journey has been far and wide, sampling spells at Swedish club Vasalunds and Scottish duo Hamilton and Queen of the South amongst others, along with the seaside trio of Scarborough, Southport and Morecambe.

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Defender Scott's path has been a little more sedate, taking in stints at Oxford, Mansfield and Chester following a seven-year playing spell at Boundary Park which saw him clock up well over 200 games.

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Now – finally – the 29-year-olds have joined forces again at Throstle Nest in their home city of Leeds and David is delighted after completing a switch from Blue Square Conference rivals Stafford Rangers.

On the move, McNiven said: "It was a bit of a surprise that Stafford let me go to a club in the same dogfight.

"But I know that finances are difficult at Stafford and they wanted me off the wage bill.

"I spoke to my brother about the situation and he said he'd ask the manager and see if he was interested. Things came back positive and went from there."

Asked over his brother's involvement in the deal, McNiven quipped: "It was nothing, apart from his agent's fees!

"Obviously dad played for Leeds and we were both born in Leeds, so it's nice to be back playing with my brother here.

"It's been a good 10 years since I've played with him and that was the biggest factor for me in signing for Farsley.

"We didn't know if our paths would cross again. Scott has always played that little bit higher than me, but his circumstances have changed and we're lucky enough to be back playing together at Farsley.

"It's a nice club and everyone has made me feel welcome.

We all get along with each other and it's been good so far."

The nomadic striker found himself at Stafford's Marston Road base – his 15th club – at the start of the season after opting to move to the Midlands ahead of Halifax Town, but has endured a frustrating stint at the club.

Their Conference campaign has failed to get out of first gear, by and large, with injury having also affected McNiven, although he has found the net on five occasions.

But with the man who brought him to Stafford leaving the club, McNiven's prospects dimmed and he has now swapped one relegation battle for another after moving north to Throstle Nest.

But, from what he has seen so far, McNiven is confident the Celts have got what it takes to save their skins in the division following an historic first-ever promotion to this level at the end of last term.

On his travails at Stafford, McNiven – who found the net on his Celts debut against promotion-chasing Exeter - said: "I played a few games, but not as many as I'd like.

"There was a change of manager and I also had a bad back and was out for six to seven weeks and never featured after that.

"It's obviously been disappointing there this season. Our aim at the start of the season was to be much higher than where we were. But things haven't worked out."

And on his new survival mission at Farsley, McNiven – who was not allowed to play at Stafford under the terms of his move to Celtic – added: "We play some good football and the Woking win was a great result and performance.

"Exeter was a good performance apart from conceding two goals from set-plays, but we played well and should have got a point.

"We've got Weymouth coming up and, hopefully, we can beat them and drag them into the dogfight. Halifax are down there too and Rushden are just above us and aren't out of it.

"We must look upwards and try and drag as many others into it as possible.

"If we can go on, say a three-match winning run – touch wood – we can get out of it and drag others in. But we need to do it sooner rather than later; we don't want to be going into the last few games needing to win."

McNiven added: "I just want to earn a place up front. Damien Reeves has been playing well of late and Steve Torpey is a real handful for any defence.

"Unfortunately, I couldn't feature against Stafford and it would have been good to get another chance to play. But there's another game on Tuesday (against Rushden) and hopefully, I'll get a chance in that."