PAUL Cox expects new boy Liam Hughes to bring significant presence to Barrow AFC’s midfield.

Hughes has made the move to Holker Street from Scottish Premiership side Inverness Caledonian Thistle, signing a two-year deal.

The 23-year-old spent six years at Cambridge United – helping them win the Conference and the FA Trophy in 2014 and featuring regularly in League Two before falling out of favour late last year.

Cox initially tried to grab the South Yorkshireman in the January transfer window – both on loan and, when he was released from his contract with the U’s by mutual consent, on a permanent deal.

However, Caley Thistle denied the Bluebirds their man at the last minute, though it has turned out to be a case of waiting for the right moment for Barrow.

Now he has arrived in south Cumbria, Cox is expecting great things from Hughes, and said: “Liam is a great signing.

“He played in the Scottish Premier and Inverness Caledonian Thistle played him as a centre forward, but the lad has great versatilty.

“He is coming to us as a midfielder, but he has played in every position you can think of – I think he even played in goal for Cambridge!

“He has experience of getting promoted from this league and he has great presence – he’s 6ft 4ins, he’s box-to-box, he gets around the pitch and covers a lot of ground. He’s technically good and he has a goal in him as well.

“Once again, we are buying into somebody who has experience and know-how of playing in and winning this league and he has also played a lot of games in League Two, and probably more importantly, played in the Scottish Premier last year. He’s been freed, which is not very nice, but as one door closes, another opens for us.”

After a change of manager at Inverness, Hughes decided to head back closer to home.

He made 11 appearances for Caley Thistle, including nine in the Scottich Premiership, though they pale in comparison to the 177 he made for Cambridge, which included 13 goals.

One of those strikes came as the U’s defeated Gateshead 2-1 in the Conference play-off final at Wembley in 2014.

Cox was always keeping his eye on Hughes after missing out on him at the start of the year, and was quick to move this time round to ensure no other clubs repeated the poaching act Inverness pulled off.

He added: “We were the only team in. We jumped in straight away and we kept it all under wraps until he had signed. As soon as it got out into the public domain, there would have been one or two teams jumping on it right away.

“That’s what happened last time. We tried to jump in quick when we knew he was going to be released. He was set to sign on the Friday night, but Inverness came in late on the Friday night and he was on the plane up there.”

Hughes follows Ross Hannah, Richie Bennett, Moussa Diarra, Lindon Meikle, Nick Wilmer-Anderton and Paul Turnbull in moving to AFC so far in the close season.

Andy Parry and Alex-Ray Harvey have both signed new contracts, while seven players are on deals from last season, though some of those are expected to have left before the season starts.

A centre-back, a goalkeeper, a striker, a supporting attacker and a full-back are all still on Cox’s radar, with deals for two of those players thought to be close to completion.