Steelmen boss Graham Drury completed a deal last night for the 27-year-old who spent two seasons with the Poppies, helping them to second place in the Blue Square North in 2007.

He also includes spells with Farnborough Town and Histon on his CV since starting out as a trainee at Wycombe Wanderers in 2003.

Osborn finished last season at Corby's BGB Southern League Premier Division rivals Halesowen Town where he was reunited with his old Poppies boss Morell Maison.

Now Drury has made him his fifth significant signing in the last two weeks.

"It came almost out of the blue really," said Drury.

"Mark was unhappy with what he felt was instability over his position at Halesowen and we were alerted to that.

"He called me up and we spoke about the possibility of him coming to us.

"I think he was very impressed with the ambition we have here at this club, the set-up we have in place and our plans for the future.

"He decided he wanted to be part of that and so he has agreed to join us."

Osborn will now compete for a starting place with Lee Crockett – who impressed at the back-end of last season – and Gareth Jones.

And Drury hopes Osborn will be one of the final pieces in the promotion jigsaw.

"With the signings we've made and the players we've kept from last year, I'm really happy with the squad we are putting together.

"I think we should have a real prospect of going for promotion," he added.

"With Osborn coming here, we now have competition for places in all areas of the team.

"We've already got two or three players going for each outfield
position so why not have the same situation in goal, too?

"It can only benefit us in the long term."