Sunderland chairman Niall Quinn is delighted with the capture of fullback Greg Halford from Reading.

"Greg Halford stood out as one of the best players in the Championship last season for me," said the former Arsenal, Manchester City and Sunderland centre-forward, who as chairman authorised Roy Keane's first signing of the summer.

"He would be one of the three or four players I saw last season who I thought were definitely better than Championship standards. He played extremely well against us at the Stadium of Light last season, even though Colchester lost the game 3-1. We had three players marking him at one stage even though he was meant to be playing full-back away from home."

Although Sunderland had to pay £500,000 more for Halford than the Royals did in January, Quinn believes his unheralded arrival will prove a shrewd move.

"I was delighted to get Halford, which seems to have gone by a little unnoticed," Quinn told The Journal. "We felt we were getting close to signing him in January but the lure of the Premiership just took him away from us."