Preston North End have completed their first signing of the January transfer window, by agreeing a permanent deal for Walsall winger Josh Ginnelly.

The 21-year-old has put pen to paper on a two-and-a-half-year contract and moves from the Saddlers for an undisclosed fee.

Josh, who spent three years at Lancashire rivals Burnley, completed the move on New Year’s Day, but will be unavailable for the clash with Rotherham United due to signing deadlines and is cup tied for weekend’s game with Doncaster Rovers.

The pacy wide man has been allocated the No.17 shirt and will be available for selection for the next league game, at home to Swansea City on Saturday 12th January.

Speaking about the move the Coventry-born man said: "I'm delighted to be here, I can tell the way the manager works, it's going to be good for me and I can only get better.

"I've seen what he's done with Callum Robinson and a few of the other boys as well so I can't wait to get going and work under him."

Manager Alex Neil was delighted to have finalised his first piece of business in the window and added: “He will give us another wide option. He has real quality, he is technically very good; he can shift it off either side; he is direct and quick and he is very much like Callum Robinson was a couple of years ago. Hopefully we can do what we have done with Callum, which is to make him more effective in games.

“The fact he can’t play for a couple weeks could be really beneficial for him, particularly being a wide player, because there is a lot of detail for them to absorb.

"Billy Bodin was a great example of that when he first came, because the job of our wide players is very different from most other teams, there is a lot they have to take in, but Josh is more than intelligent enough to grasp that and then hopefully we can give him freedom enough to go and express himself.”