King’s Lynn Town boss Gary Setchell believes the club have sent out a clear statement of intent with the capture of Shane Tolley.
The Linnets saw off competition from both Corby and St Neots to land the prolific striker from Histon this morning and Setchell is delighted with the signing.
Setchell said: “It (the Tolley signing) sends out a big message that we do mean business. The chairman is desperate for us to stay in the top five and also to try to go on and win the league.
“He’s another quality signing for the club and a proven goalscorer wherever he has played.
“It’s no secret that I’ve been a big admirer of Shane for some time and we know that he is capable of scoring goals at this level.
“He was part of a three-man strikeforce for St Neots last season, but still scored 25 goals to help fire them to the title.
Although Tolley is cup-tied for the FA Trophy, Tolley is set to go straight in the squad for today’s game against Hucknall Town at The Walks.
Tolley, 27, started his career at Peterborough United and had a brief spell at FK Riga in Latvia before returning to his native south west to spend three years at Truro.
He then moved to home town club Barnstaple Town before linking up with Dennis Greene at St Neots Town in 2010, where he bagged 56 league goals in two seasons.
Tolley was released by St Neots in the summer and signed for big-spending Spalding where the he scored 20 times in all competitions, despite missing the first five weeks of the campaign through injury.
He put pen-to-paper for Histon in October, where he again joined forces with Greene.
On the prospect of Tolley linking up with Dunkley, Setchell said: “It’s an exciting prospect and I’m sure they will work well together.
“Sometimes if things are not going to plan or Dunks is injured we need a plan B and bringing Shane in will give us that.
“The firepower we will have available to us is frightening. Not only will we have both Russell and Shane, but we’ve also got the likes of Sam (Mulready), Jason (Turner) and Danny (Beaumont) waiting in the wings.”