CHARLTON striker Nicky Ajose has signed for Bury on a season-long loan.

The 25-year-old forward arrives for his third spell at Gigg Lane after famously helping the Shakers win promotion from League Two in 2010 while on loan from Manchester United.

He formed a prolific partnership with Ryan Lowe that season, scoring 13 goals in 28 appearances.

And Ajose was met by his former team-mate, now a player-coach, at the airport in Marbella after flying in yesterday to thrash out the deal.

Manager Lee Clark said: “We’ve managed to get the lad on the plane this evening and he will join us for training while here in Marbella because I want him to get in a couple of sessions.

"I think the fans will be extremely happy when they see Nicky Ajose coming in to replace James Vaughan.

"He’s a local lad, he’s played for the club before and he has been a goalscorer all his career.

"He has a terrific goalscoring record and comes back to us with a great pedigree and I believe he will fit in with the group really well."

Ajose had a less impressive spell on loan at Gigg Lane in 2013, when he managed just four goals in 18 appearances as the Shakers were relegated from League One.

He has also struggled to put down roots, playing for 10 different clubs in eight years.

But while Ajose has failed to settle after ill-fated moves to Peterborough, Leeds and Charlton aside, he showed what he was capable of during a successful recent spell at Swindon, when he banged in 25 goals in 40 games.

And the Bury-born striker will be looking to rekindle that kind of form back at Gigg Lane, where he is expected to make his third debut against Huddersfield on Sunday.

The feeling remains, however, that Ajose will not be the last striker signed in the transfer window, following the departures this week of James Vaughan and George Miller, to Sunderland and Middlesbrough, respectively.

At present, Clark also has Jermaine Beckford and Newcastle loanee Tom Heardman at his disposal, while there is a chance that Miller could be loaned back to Bury for the season.

But there could yet be another arrival in time for the weekend's match against the Terriers, with names like Dexter Blackstock, Fraizer Campbell and Lee Novak thought to be in the frame.