Joining from Forest Green Rovers at the end of January for an undisclosed fee, Mark Beesley is a skilful and intelligent forward who can play up front or 'in the hole'.

His career began as a trainee at Preston North End, where he made a couple of substitute appearances for the Championship club, but he blossomed after moving on to Chester City in 2000, where he played and scored regularly in the Conference for two seasons.

A change of manager saw him loaned to Southport before he moved south to join Hereford in December 2003, then joined Forest Green the following summer.  He was a first team regular for most of his first season but in April 2005 suffered a cruciate ligament injury and was sidelined until January 2006.  Struggling to break back into the first team when fit again, he had a loan spell at Lancaster but when Jim Harvey became manager at Forest Green Mark's career took an upturn again and by the time Cambridge United's bid was accepted in January 2008 he had already scored ten goals in the league and set up many for leading scorer Stuart Fleetwood (including a hat-trick against the U's!

'Bees' has signed a contract to 2010 and looks set to become an established member of the United team.