Former Carlisle United midfielder Dean Furman has joined Warrington Rylands, major rivals to Workington Reds in the NPL West.
Reds lead the way but ambitious Rylands, owned by EWayne Rooney agent Paul Stretford are seen as their main rivals to the automatic promotion place.
Rylands suffered a 1-0 defeat at Kidsgrove last week and the response has been the Warrington club signing three players.
Furman, Johnny Hunt and Will Appleyard were revealed last night by Rylands as joining the squad ahead of today;s game at home to Glossop North End.
Furman, now 33, has been capped 58 times by South Africa after starting his youth career with Chelsea and then Rangers.
His one senior outing came with Rangers in 2008/09 but in that time he had 31 games on loan with Bradford City and scored five goals.
A permanent move to Oldham Athletic followed and he clocked-up 131 appearances and eight goals. He then moved to Doncaster after an initial loan spell and played 58 senior games.
He moved back to South Africa in 2015 joining SuperSport United, where he played 101 games and won two MTN 8 Trophies and two Nedbank Cups, and a runners-up medal in the 2017 Confederation Cup.
He was described by the club as “one of our greatest midfielders and captains.”
On his return to the UK for the 2020/21 season he joined Carlisle and played 17 times before leaving and signing for Altrincham in the National League.
Left back Hunt, 31, has played for Wrexham, Chester, Stevenage and Hamilton Academicals while keeper Appleyard, 22, has joined from Tadcaster Albion after starting his career at Stevenage.
