Shrewsbury Town boss Paul Simpson has landed his first signing of the January transfer window – bringing Huddersfield left-back Joe Skarz in on loan to the end of the season.

Skarz is just 20-years-old but has already made 88 first team appearances, including seven on loan at Hartlepool at the end of last season.

He has also had 20 outings for Huddersfield in League One this season, the last coming against West Brom in the FA Cup on January 2.

The defender is expected to go straight into the Town side for tomorrow’s League Two clash at home to Dagenham & Redbridge, with regular left-back Shane Cansdell-Sherriff switching to the middle to cover for the injured Graham Coughlan.

“The thing that pleased me with Joe is he had options to go elsewhere, including a League One club, but he said no and jumped at the opportunity here,” Simpson revealed.

“That is the enthusiasm and determination I want from players who want to come to this club and hopefully we will get some more.

“We have spoken about bringing Joe in for a while but it got held up while Huddersfield looked to bring someone into their side,” he added.

Huddersfield boss Lee Clark believes the move will be good for Skarz, who is contracted to the Terriers until the end of the 2010/11 season.

“With Joe currently not in our starting XI, the opportunity for him to go and play first team football with such a good team was too good to turn down,” said Clark.

Coughlan is likely to be out for around three weeks, having strained his hamstring in the 1-1 draw at Burton Albion last weekend.

Reserve goalkeeper Andreas Arestidou and the manager’s son Jake Simpson are both also carrying injuries that will rule them out of contention.

But the Town chief has an otherwise full-strength squad at his disposal as his side bid to extend their unbeaten run to five games.

Dagenham beat Shrewsbury 5-0 at Victoria Road back in August and go into the game two places above their Shropshire hosts in fourth position.