Shrewsbury Town complete Omar Beckles signing

The six ft three ins London-born stopper pens a three-year deal at Montgomery Waters Meadow, becoming Paul Hurst's 14th summer signing in the process.

Beckles played 48 times for Stanley last season in his first campaign as a Football League player.

Accrington brought him from National League Aldershot as the 25-year-old continued to rise up the football ladder. After being released by Millwall as a youngster he spent time in Glenn Hoddle's Spanish academy before playing for southern non-league sides including Boreham Wood, Kettering and AFC Hornchurch.

Beckles becomes the fourth centre-half, joining Toto Nsiala, Mat Sadler and Zak Jules, adding extra cover for Hurst in the position.

The boss said it could 'possibly' be his final addition of the summer.

Hurst said: "It's took a little while. He's someone we've come across in the Conference when he was at Aldershot.

"We were impressed by his athleticism, willingness to compete and we've certainly kept an eye on him since them.

"At the beginning of last season he was on TV against Burnley and was absolutely outstanding. I was very surprised that someone hadn't gone in for him.

"We've monitored him ever since, he fits the profile of player we're looking at bringing in and gives us that defensive cover that we've spent a while speaking about.

"I'm delighted that he's here and I'm really looking forward to working with him.

"He can play both sides quite comfortably. He's often had to play on the left side. It's great from that point of view.

"He's played a couple of times at left-back, not saying that's something we've brought him in to do.

"But again if that left-back cover isn't there then it would leave me Zak, Sads, Omar that could fill in and do a job.

"It's good flexibility on that side. Going back to profile, his age, athletic, pace, he fits in well with what we're trying to do.

"We hope he can shine. First and foremost he's got to force his way into the team. The first part is getting him integrated, seeing where his fitness is compared to what we want to work to and see if he can handle that straight away or whether we need to build that up.

"Fitness at one club can be different at one club to another, we've seen that ourselves.

"We believe that he can certainly step up as we have with Bolts (James Bolton) etc. We've got every confidence but it's about making him have the ability he can fit in with the rest of the players.

"It's a three-year deal so it's again about putting building blocks in place for the club. It's a long time, one season, but for the beginning of next season it's another player that should be here and formed a good basis of the squad.

"We don't want to go through the same process that we went through the summer, me personally and the club want to build something and he's another part of that jigsaw.

"Omar is someone we've paid a fee for so I'd like to thank the chairman for backing it and myself. Ultimately he's backing me but we both want to do what's right for the football club and help it compete.

"Possibly that might be it. But I've got to keep asking and pushing. If it closes and that's it then I think we've got players that can perhaps play one or two positions, change formation if we want to, but if the right player became available it won't stop me asking the questions - what response I'd get we'd have to wait and see."