Boss says chance to land Nugent made more sense than bringing in another experienced one.

Steve Davis has revealed to the club’s official web-site that he elected to go with the potential of Ben Nugent instead of pursuing an interest in a more experienced defender such as our former loanee Alan Tate.

The Alex boss signed Nugent on a two-year-deal earlier this week and he is in contention for his debut against our local neighbours Port Vale this weekend.

Davis has had the towering 22-year-old on his radar for a while and was delighted to capture him this week after pursuing an interest from the end of last season. Nugent will wear the number six shirt this season.

Steve told crewealex.net: “Ben will add some extra height and that is something we knew we had to improve on. We have a few big ones now because we were a fairly small team.

“He is a left sided defender so he will give us a nice balance on that side of the pitch and he can play in a back three or four. We have real competition in that position and that is what we wanted.

“We just felt that when it came down to it, we were getting a young player with Championship experience who we could develop and improve.

The boss added: “He is a player with huge potential and he wants to get better That is what this club is all about and we decided to go with that instead of getting another experienced one in who may not have played every week anyway.”