Alfreton Town is pleased to announce the signing of defender Tom Allan, who returns to the Reds from Farsley Celtic for the 2021/22 season.

The 26-year-old has previously had two spells at The Impact Arena, including a three-year stint at towards the early stage of his playing career and becomes Billy Heath’s first summer signing ahead of the forthcoming campaign.

After coming through the York City academy, Allan spent some time out on loan at Hucknall and Harrogate before joining Gateshead permanently in summer 2014. The centre-back was at the North East side for just one year and moved to Alfreton at the end of the season.

Allan quickly established himself as a mainstay in the Reds team as they challenged for a late play-off push in the National League North but ended up finishing in 10th. Although the ex-Tadcaster man was an impressive force at the back, his goalscoring exploits were also catching the attention in 2017/18, as he notched an impressive eight times in just 40 appearances.

He moved back to his hometown club at the start of the new season, but he struggled for regular minutes at The Minstermen and spent the second-half of 2018/19 back at Alfreton as Allan helped them to cement a mid-table finish.

After a loan spell at Farsley at the beginning of the following campaign, Allan moved to the West Yorkshire outfit permanently last summer, but now returns to the Reds ahead of the new season.

Heath was pleased to bring the ex-Gateshead man back to the Club and believes his flexibility to play on the left of the back-line will be beneficial moving forward.

He said: "Tom has been with us before. First time he went back to York and we didn't want to lose him but he went back to hometown club. We had him before I came to the club as well, so it was important for Tom to be settled.

"He's been used before as a utility player, but he's had a couple of seasons playing centre-half where he wants to play and where we've brought him in to be. That's where we're going to play him.

"He's big, experienced left-footed centre-back and I feel like that's massively important for the balance of the side and we're pleased to get him in. He's maturing into a good player at this level so we're really pleased to get that one done."