Boss pleased that centre-half finally chose us in summer pursuit.

David Artell says that the club pursued defender Terell Thomas for much of the summer before the former AFC Wimbledon man agree to join Crewe Alexandra. The centre-half was an unused substitute at Portsmouth at the weekend and Artell says that the 25-year-old Londoner will more than fill the gap left by Tommie Hoban following his surprise retirement.

Artell told the club’s official website: “We tried to get Terell earlier in the window but he had other things in the pipeline at the time and we had to be patient.

“We pursued him for a good 6-8 weeks before we got him and he fit the profile of what we are looking for. He will fill the gap left by Tommie (Hoban).

“He has kept himself fit over pre-season and is ready. He played for Brentford B to keep himself fit and I managed to watch one of his games for them on YouTube. It was against Cambridge, so it was a new League One club and a chance to see Terell.

“We have to integrate what we want from him into the group but he is a good player and he will be fine.

He added: “We still have some work to do and we would like to get one, possibly two in this week if we can. It is an important couple of weeks coming not, not just with the results but with trying to get more players into the Football Club.”