Steve Cooper | We've had our eye on Ben for a while

Steve Cooper revealed Swansea City had kept an eye on Ben Hamer since the summer after completing a move for the Huddersfield keeper.

The 33-year-old has signed an 18-month contract at the Liberty Stadium, and will challenge Freddie Woodman for the number one spot following Steven Benda’s ankle injury.

Hamer comes with no shortage of experience, having made more than 300 league appearances across a career taking in spells with Reading, Crawley, Brentford, Exeter, Charlton, Leicester, Nottingham Forest, Bristol City, Derby and Huddersfield.

And head coach Steve Cooper was pleased to bring in a goalkeeper of such professionalism and know-how, admitting Hamer was a player the Swans looked at during the off-season.

“Ben is a goalkeeper we did a lot of due diligence on in the summer,” said Cooper.

“Martyn Margetson leads that in terms of what he wants a goalkeeper to be, and he shares his rationale and we all chip in.

“We showed a bit of interest but, at the time, it was best for him to stay at Huddersfield.

“But it has come up again, and it has been quite timely due to the situation we found ourselves in with Steven.

“So it’s a bit of fate really as it did not happen in the summer and it has reared its head again for now.

“We are getting an experienced goalkeeper with experience of being a number one and a number two.

“We know we are bringing in the right character, we had a lot of character references on him and they all said how professional he is and how good he is with the younger boys.

“He is a good goalkeeper with good distribution, and he fits in with the profile of what we want a Swansea City keeper to be.”