THE SADDLERS have completed the capture of experienced striker, Tommy Mooney.

The 35 year-old is a strong and uncompromising front-man who began his career at Aston Villa, where he played under Richard Money.

Having failed to make the breakthrough into the first-team at Villa Park, he was allowed to link-up with Scarborough where he really came to the fore with 30 League goals in just over 100 outings.

His form for the North Yorkshire outfit prompted a £100,000 switch to Southend United in readiness for the 1993/94 campaign.

Notching five goals in just nine League starts for The Shrimpers, he was loaned out to Watford towards the end of that season before joining them on a permanent basis in July 1994.

He enjoyed some highly successful times during his seven-year stay at Vicarage Road as he helped the club secure Premier League status in the course of 279 appearances.

Well liked by the fans for his never-say-die attitude and total commitment, he then joined Birmingham City in the summer of 2001 where his efforts also found favour with The Blues' failthful and saw him achieve another promotion into the top-flight.

Loan spells at Stoke City, Sheffield United and Derby County came during his time at St. Andrews before he made a free transfer move to Swindon Town in July 2003.

After a total of 20 goals in all competitions in 2003/04, he then joined Oxford United for the 2004/05 campaign where he found the net on 15 occasions.

A summer 2005 move to Wycombe Wanderers followed and saw him end his first season with 19 goals before weighing in with 13 last term as The Chairboys just missed out on the play-offs.

In total he has made 699 senior appearances in all competitions, scoring 196 goals and as such he will bring a wealth of experience and know-how to The Saddlers' side. In fact, when we played at Wycombe last term, teenage hot-shot Troy Deeney was taken along specifically to watch and learn from Mooney throughout the 90 minutes. "This is a quality signing," beamed Richard Money. "We have brought in a player with fantastic hunger and ambition who is as fit as he's ever been.

"In fact, he more or less interviewed me when I met him last week because he wants to be involved with a club that is progressing and going places.

"He's a player that I worked with when he was in the youth team at Aston Villa and since then he's gone on to have a terrific career in the game. He's been a regular performer and scorer in recent years and as soon as we found out that he was available, we moved quickly to secure his services.

"We have a lot of young players in the squad this year and they need experienced heads around them. Just like Danny Sonner and Paul Hall, Tommy has a major contribution to make both on and off-the-field."

Money went on to admit that he still wants to add to his attacking options before the season gets underway. "There are going to be plenty more changes between now and the start of the season," he said. "I still want to add to the strike force and our attempts to strengthen the squad will continue."

There will be an exclusive first interview with the new signing here on www.saddlers.co.uk and Saddlers World later today.