Grimsby Town Football Club are pleased to announce the signing of left back, Sam Habergham until the end of the season.

The 28-year-old free agent becomes Paul Hurst’s first signing as manager and will be eligible for tomorrow’s trip to Port Vale.

After progressing through the Academy system at Norwich City, Habergham joined Tamworth in 2011 before making the move to Braintree Town the following season. In 4 seasons at Braintree Town, Habergham was an ever-present, making a total of 190 appearances with his final appearance for the club coming against the Mariners in the National League play-off semi-final second leg.

Habergham followed his former manager Danny Cowley to Lincoln City, where he helped the club secure the National League title in 2017, before finishing in the play-off spots and lifting the EFL Trophy at Wembley Stadium the following season. After suffering a significant knee injury towards the end of the 2017/18 season, Habergham had a successful surgery prior to a lengthy period of rehabilitation and is now fit and raring to go.

We caught up with manager Paul Hurst, who spoke exclusively to gtfc.co.uk about his latest acquisition. “If you look at it, there’s not particularly competition or cover there [left back] for Danny Preston, I think Harry has filled in there at times as has Luke Hendrie, but a proper left-back is something that I wanted to bring into the squad”, said Hurst.

“The deal is something that works for everybody. He hasn’t played football for some time admittedly, but he has been in training with us and he played some of the game on Wednesday and we have been impressed with how fit he is. He clearly will get fitter and he adds experience in that area, we could have gone down the route of bringing in a young loan player, but will that be productive? I’m not sure. Hopefully those two can strike up a good relationship, yes they’re competing for places but ultimately they’re teammates and hopefully Sam’s experience can help Danny as well.

“With any signing there are never any guarantees”, said Hurst. “We could get the fittest player in the world come through the door and he could suffer an injury the next day. We are comfortable with Sam, the deal and where it is at and it gives him the platform to show and build and come next season, depending on how it goes for both parties I am sure we will be talking about extending that deal.

“I was really impressed with him when he was at Lincoln, but also when he was at Braintree before and when he came up against us he was always a really steady player. Steady doesn’t always sound overly exciting but whenever I used to come away from a game after watching him, I always thought he got better, improved and grew into every game and there were never any issues down his side of the pitch, so that’s something that we hope he will bring to our squad”.

Habergham has spent the last week with his new teammates at Cheapside and is excited to be back playing football. “It’s been great, it’s been fantastic to come in, get a full week of training with the boys and getting those minutes in on Wednesday was great, especially with it being my first game in a long time. Since I have come in this week, the boys have been great with me, everybody has been so welcoming which is always something you hope for.”

He also touched on his lengthy injury, but is looking to put his former troubles behind him and hit the ground running. “It’s been a long road for me to get back to this point”, said Habergham. “It has taken a really long time, but I just put my mind to it, continued to work really hard and for me to get here, it’s massive for me so I just want to kick on from here, continue to play games and win football matches for this club. I was saying to a few people after the game on Wednesday, I was just excited to get back into the changing room with the music on getting changed before the game, it’s a feeling that I have not experienced in a long time and it was nice to get back into that routine but also to get that win.”

Habergham will wear the number 36 shirt for the Mariners.

You can see if Sam makes his debut for the club by watching tomorrow’s game live on iFollow Mariners. Purchase your match pass by clicking HERE.