Town have signed 25-year old left sided player Shane Sherriff on a free transfer from Tranmere Rovers.

Shane was spotted by Leeds United playing for New South Wales Academy in Australia and was signed by the Yorkshire club. He was named as a substitute against Manchester United while aged just 20 for Leeds but never really made the break through and made his league debut while on a loan spell at Rochdale. Leeds financial problems saw Shane released, he then played in the top division (Superliga) in Denmark with Aarhus for three years. As well as representing Australia at Under-23 level, he was a member of the squad that competed at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

A move back to the UK saw him impress while on trial at Tranmere Rovers and Ronnie Moore signed him up. He started the 2006/07 season as captain of the new look Tranmere side and has made around 90 league and cup appearances.

Shane passed is medical at the new stadium early on Saturday morning and signed on a 2 year deal.

Town manager Paul Simpson revealed the news to ShrewsWeb and was delighted to have signed the player: "I'm delighted to have got Shane to come to the club.

"He's a player whose career I've followed since I got into management and I think he is a quality footballer.

"He's at a good age in his mid 20's, is a fit lad, a good athlete, he's a left sided player and my thoughts are he's a left sided centre-half but he is equally comfortable at left-back or left midfield. When you can get a lefty who can play in a number of positions they are worth their weight in gold.

"He was always regarded as a good young player at Leeds but he never really got a look in. I took him on loan to Rochdale where he stayed for a couple of months but I wasn't allowed to sign him permanently.

"He's been at Tranmere for the last couple of years and played a hell of a lot of games for them. He was offered a two year contract by Ronnie Moore at Tranmere but I think he felt he just needed a change.

"I brought him down to the club about a month ago and we've been chatting since then. He's been mulling it over since then and I'm really pleased we've got to the point where he's signed for the club and I'm really looking forward to him working with us."

One player who won't be joining up with Town is Rochdale defender Graham Coughlan. The player and the club have been in talks for a while now but Simmo confirmed that they club had now pulled out of the deal: "Graeme's a player who I still like, I'm not going to deny that but things have dragged on for so long now.

"I've had to make a decision and I've pulled out of the move for now. If anything changes further down the line you never know but for now I'm not going to take it any further.

"I think it was about 6 weeks ago that I brought Graeme in to show him around the stadium, he's been busy doing coaching badges and has been on holiday and things haven't moved as quickly as I would have wanted them to.

"I've spoken to Graeme and he's disappointed, I'm disappointed that it became public knowledge from their end and that's now how I go about things.

"All in all it's been a little bit of disappointing finish to it."

The Town squad now stands at 25 players and that is quite high for a League 2 club. Simmo has mentioned that players will need to leave the club but so far there haven't been any solid offers: "It's going to have to be a case of people ringing me and saying they are interested in my players.

"There have been phone calls but there have not been any definite calls from a club saying they want to take such and such a player.

"We are going to have to work with them all and see how things go over the next few weeks."

This news was released first on the official Shrewsbury Town SMS service - click here for more details on how to join.