Witham Town have added more experience to their back line with the signing of Nikki Beale.

The former Billericay Town, Great Wakering Rovers and Redbridge centre-half made a scoring debut in Witham’s 5-2 Ryman League premier division defeat at Bognor Regis Town on Tuesday after joining from Heybridge Swifts.

With Paul King sidelined with sciatica and the rest of Town’s defence having a very youthful look to it, their management team decided to add another experienced head to the rosta.

Paul is set to miss Saturday’s trip to Dulwich Hamlet, but assistant boss Brad King feels Beale is the type of character they need.

Brad said: “Kingy has been playing with sciatica, which has been getting worse, and we felt he needed a complete rest.

“But we are a young side and you need the organisation that an experienced player like Kingy brings so we made the decision to bring Nikki in.

“He’s someone who I have known for a long time, he is hugely experienced and he’s the type of character you want in the dressing room."