Gillingham have captured the signing of defender Ben Nugent on a one-year deal.

The 24-year-old centre-back arrives at MEMS Priestfield Stadium after leaving Crewe Alexandra at the end of last season and could go straight into the squad to play MK Dons on Saturday.

The defender began his career at Cardiff City and played 14 times for the Bluebirds, scoring one goal before enjoying loan spells at Brentford, Peterborough and Yeovil.

While at Griffin Park he netted twice in five outings before making the short journey north to London Road where he would complete the 2013/14 season.

In the summer of 2014 he joined Yeovil on loan and scored one goal in 29 appearances, one of those games being against Manchester United in the FA Cup with the Premier League giants prevailing 2-0 thanks to goals from Ander Herrera and Angel di Maria.

His consistent performances alerted the attention of Crewe who snapped up the defender in August 2015 on a two-year contract. While at the Alexandra Stadium, playing alongside Billy Bingham, Ben played 66 times and scored once.

On signing for the Gills Nugent said: “I spoke to the manager a couple of weeks ago and he invited me in to come and train and thankfully he liked what he saw and I’m glad to have signed.”

Head Coach Ady Pennock added: “I’m very pleased to get Ben on board; he provides good competition in the centre of defence. We’re a little bit short on centre-backs and with Ben it’s a case of he does what it says on the tin.

“He’s a winner, he’s played a lot of games in the league and he’s the type of character we need.”