Former Manchester United, Shrewsbury Town and Doncaster Rovers defender looking to help Larne defend their Premiership crown

The Inver Reds, who won a fourth consecutive Co Antrim Shield on Tuesday, are currently four points adrift of leaders Linfield with 12 games to go as they aim to defend the Gibson Cup.

Williams made 145 Football League appearances with Shrewsbury Town and Doncaster Rovers – the majority of which were in League One – after leaving Old Trafford in 2019 and will provide defensive competition following Craig Farquhar’s move to Crystal Palace.

He became Larne’s fourth January signing after Aidan McAdams, Chris Gallagher and Oisin Devlin, who has been loaned back to Institute for the rest of this season, and the 25-year-old is hoping to bring value to the club with his experience.

"I’m delighted and happy to be getting back into football after some time out,” he said. “I’m happy to be here.

"I just wanted a different challenge and I came over last week to train with the boys, meet the manager and the staff and I enjoyed it. I wanted something new.

"I’ve played a lot of games at different levels in England and gained a lot of experience and hopefully I can bring that and add it to the team when given the opportunity over here and hopefully be successful.”

Williams has also represented England at youth level, playing in the same U19 squad as Trent Alexander-Arnold, Aaron Ramsdale and Ryan Sessegnon, and at the age of 15 broke two-time Olympic medallist Darren Campbell's 100-metre schoolboy record.

Lynch’s men host the league’s bottom side Newry City on Friday evening and Williams is delighted to be stepping into a “winning environment”.

"All the boys are tight with each other and I’m a new face, but they’ve been in a winning environment for the past 18 months winning the league last year and gone quite a few games unbeaten,” he added. “It’s important for me to go into a winning environment and when you’re winning you are happy playing football – that’s something I want to be doing.

"I feel like it should be easy for me to settle in. Hopefully I can get game time, show everyone what I can do and the ability that I have.

"I’ve come over here to win something and we want to win the league. I want to settle in as quickly as possible to the league and get back playing and take on board the information that the staff and manager give me.

"I’ve came here to win games and hopefully we can have a strong run in until the end of the season and win the league.”