Crawley Town announced the signing of Rochdale midfielder Gary Dicker until the end of the season today (Thursday January 23).
Dicker, 27, joined Rochdale from Brighton and Hove Albion in September 2013.
The former Republic of Ireland under-21 player, who will wear the number 28 shirt at Crawley, featured 129 times for the Seagulls in four seasons with Brighton.
In a statement on the club’s website he said: “When I heard Crawley were interested I was absolutely delighted because they are a progressive and ambitious club with a terrific squad and the prospect of working with someone as experience in the game as the Gaffer was another attraction.
“It’s a great move for me personally because my family are down here and it has been hard commuting from the north west but I have come here for footballing reasons.
“Looking at the table, I think we still have a lot to play for this season. We’ve got 22 games left and 66 points and we definitely have the quality here to climb the table and get involved in the play-offs. Look what Yeovil did last season - who would have expected that?
“I can’t wait to be honest. Hopefully I will be involved on Saturday when we go to Rotherham.”
Manager John Gregory added: “We have been monitoring Gary for some time and I watched him again on Tuesday when he was excellent for Rochdale against Chesterfield in their top of the table clash.
“He’s a really good ball-playing midfielder. He gets stuck in but he’s also very good on the ball and he is really keen to make this move work for him.
“We have taken him initially until the end of the season but if all goes well I can definitely see him being here beyond that. That’s up to Gary, of course, but he has all the attributes to be a success at this football club for a long time to come.”