BALA Town have strengthened their striking options ahead of their Europa League tie with Tre Fiori of San Marino by signing experienced centre forward Andy Mangan from Tranmere Rovers.

The 31 year old, who was released by the National League promotion play-off final winners last month, is a well known name within the English Football League.

Mangan has scored 111 league goals in 380 league appearances for a host of professional clubs, including Accrington Stanley, Forest Green Rovers, Wrexham, Fleetwood Town and Shrewsbury Town."Andy is a massive signing for us at Bala Town," said manager Colin Caton. "To attract such a talented player at this stage of his career is fantastic.

"Andy is looking to get in to the coaching side of the game, and is currently on the UEFA A Licence at the Welsh Football Trust with Ste Fisher, and that’s where the ball started rolling to come and join us.

"He will be studying and coaching in the day time and this enables Andy to play part time, and I’m happy to have Andy on board with us for the coming season."

He added: "Mangan will bring so much to the team and the dressing room, which is so important to us at Bala, with the right blend of personnel we’re look for.

"Andy will fit in well with the group, which includes the other new signings of Steven Tames, Sean Smith, Anthony Miley and Andrew Burns.”

Starting out as a youth player at Blackpool, he was a prolific scorer in their reserve and youth teams, prior to making his professional debut in 2004.

Following a brief loan move to Hyde United, Andy joned Accrington Stanley in the Conference, where he scored 10 goals in 45 starts as Stanley gained promotion into the Football League.

He moved on to Bury, where he scored five goals in 20 starts, and in 2008, he signed for Forest Green Rovers where he netted 26 goals in 41 games in his two year spell.

He signed for Wrexham in 2010, scoring 22 goals in 65 appearances, but when the Reds failed to gain promotion he was picked up by Fleetwood Town, where he netted 24 goals in 53 games.

After a couple of loan spells back at Forest Green and Luton, he signed for Shrewsbury Town in 2014, where he scored against Premiership clubs Leicester and Chelsea in the League Cup, netting eight times in 30 matches.

After a spell at Tranmere, scoring seven goals in 22 matches, he returned to Shrewsbury, and netted five times in 19 league appearances.

He rejoined former Shrews boss Micky Mellon at Tranmere in November 2016, but was released at the end of last season.