Northampton Town have signed defender Craig Hinton on an initial one year deal following his release from Bristol Rovers.

Hinton, 31, began his career as a trainee with Birmingham City before joining Kidderminster Harriers in September 1998. He spent six years at Aggborough, helping the Harriers win the Conference title in 1999/2000. He moved to the Memorial Stadium in summer 2004 and was a key member of the Rovers squad that achieved promotion to League One via the play-offs in the 2006/07 season.

Hinton's versatility is one of his main assets and the 6ft defender can play anywhere along the back four. In total he made 187 appearances in his five years with Rovers, 21 of which were as a substitute.

He has passed a medical and will officially become a Cobblers player from July 1.

"I'm delighted to have signed Craig," said Cobblers boss Stuart Gray.

"He is a good leader out on the pitch and I think the fans will enjoy his style of play. He is a hundred per cent committed to the cause and he is a player who trains how he plays and plays how he trains.

"Chris Doig has gone but the ideal scenario is for Mark Hughes to re-sign and probably play alongside Craig at centre-half. Hopefully Mark will stay but he is well within his rights to consider his options.

"We probably did lack a little bit of leadership out on the pitch last season but I think by bringing in Craig and Steve Guinan they will give us that.

"They both have good knowledge of League Two as well and they will give us the hundred per cent commitment that we are going to need to get out of this league.

"We have got part of the jigsaw fitted in for next season but there are still areas of the team that we need to strengthen. We do need a bit of pace and some young legs but with the experienced players that we have brought in hopefully the team will have a nice balance about it as well.

"A goalkeeper isn't a priority because I think you can always go out and get a goalkeeper in on loan but if someone did become available within our budget then we would obviously be interested.

"Chris Dunn needs to be pushed and hopefully Paul Walker will do that. Paul will have gained some experience from being on the bench last season and as Chris was twelve months ago I'm sure he's chomping at the bit to get out on the pitch,"