Former Sunderland, Brighton & Hove Albion and Nottingham Forest defender joins Crawley Town

Crawley Town have signed defender Joel Lynch on a a four-month deal that will see him at the club until January 3.
Defender Joel Lynch has put pen to paper to sign a four-month deal that will see him at Crawley Town until January 3. Picture courtesy of Crawley Town FCDefender Joel Lynch has put pen to paper to sign a four-month deal that will see him at Crawley Town until January 3. Picture courtesy of Crawley Town FC
Defender Joel Lynch has put pen to paper to sign a four-month deal that will see him at Crawley Town until January 3. Picture courtesy of Crawley Town FC

Lynch joins the Reds after being involved with the first-team since last season. Some fans may have even spotted him playing in their friendly fixture against Dorking Wanderers in March.

The 33-year-old central defender has an excellent professional footballing CV, playing 308 Championship games and scoring 19 goals for clubs such as Nottingham Forest, Huddersfield Town, Queen’s Park Rangers and Sunderland.

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The defender started his professional career at Brighton & Hove Albion before making a move to Nottingham Forest at the age of 20 for a reported £225,000 fee.

Lynch made 90 appearances for Forest before landing a move to Championship rivals Huddersfield Town, where he played 128 times for the Terriers between 2012 to 2016, scoring nine goals.

In 2016, QPR made a reported bid of £1.3 million for Lynch as the Welshman moved back down to London. He went on to make 95 appearance for the Rs, impressively scoring another seven goals.

Most recently the defender played 16 times for Sunderland in League One, but his 2019-20 season was disrupted by injury and then the Covid-19 outbreak. Lynch also has one Welsh cap to his name.

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Manager John Yems said: “I’m very happy to have Joel with us, he has got great experience in the Championship and has been with us for months at training.

"I wish Joel all the best here and I know he can bring a lot to our squad.”

Chief executive Erdem Konyar said: “Joel is an experienced player that knows the squad well. He will add depth and leadership to our group.”

Lynch will be available for selection for this Saturday’s game against Carlisle United.