Cambridge United have completed the £15,000 signing of Jon Challinor from Rushden & Diamonds. The goalscoring midfielder passed a medical this morning and has signed a two-year contract with the U's.

27-year-old Challinor is a versatile player who is effective in midfield, in the 'hole' behind the strikers, or up front, where he played for part of last season at Rushden and scored in four consecutive matches.

He will add creativity and goals to the U's side and manager Gary Brabin was delighted to secure his signature today: "I've said I want to bring quality in and Jon is a player I've watched over the last few years," he confirmed.

"He's a goalscorer and I mainly want to play him in midfield, although I know he can play up front as well. He's got a little bit of everything," he added. "He can play good football, which I want us to do as a team, but he's good at the competitive side of the game too and I want him to be competing for us in midfield."

Challinor came through the youth ranks at Rushden & Diamonds but left in search of regular first team football and played for Stamford and had a short spell in the USA with Kalamazoo Kingdom before Cambridge City in 2001, where he scored four goals in 37 games before joining Aldershot in 2003.

He was a first team regular there for two seasons and scored 21 goals in 78 Conference appearances, and when he was surprisingly released in 2005 he was snapped up by Exeter City, where he spent two equally successful years.

In his first season with the Grecians he made 42 appearances and scored 12 times, and followed up with ten goals in 45 appearances to help them reach the 2007 Conference Playoff Final, where they lost to Morecambe.

Re-joining Rushden & Diamonds on a free transfer last summer, he played in the first 45 league games of the season and only missed out on an 'ever-present' record when an injury meant he missed the final game of the season against his old club Aldershot.

He had spent the early part of the season in midfield, but when switched to play up front in late February 2008 he scored in four consecutive games.

Jones has been allocated squad number 10.

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