DAN Seaborne rose through the ranks of non league football to become a starting fixture in the heart of Saints' backline.

The 24-year-old was signed from Exeter for an undisclosed fee, thought to be around £250,000, in the January 2010 transfer window.

The centre-back who can also play of the left hand side penned a three and a half year contract at St Mary's.

The six foot three defender has made 50 appearances in all competitions for Saints including 29 league starts, 15 appearances a substitute, and six cup starts, scoring no goals.

He made his debut on January 16 2010 in a 1-1 draw away at Millwall.

He was largely an understudy for Saints centre half pairing Radhi Jaidi and Jose Fonte last season but has started most games this season.

Manager Nigel Adkins has stuck with the centre half combination of Seaborne and Jose Fonte that he used throughout most of his summer preparations.

Seaborne missed out on the thumping 3-1 league opening victory against Leeds through injury but returned to the side for the Carling cup match against Torquay. He has been a regular since.

Left footed Seaborne has become a physical foil to Fonte as the preferred pairing at in heart of the Saints backline rather than being in the mould of the Portuguese.

Born in Barnstaple, Devon he began his professional career as a trainee at Exeter and after various loan spells became a regular in side, captaining them to promotion from the Conference in 2007/8.

He went on to play over 30 games as they were promoted to League One in the following 2008/9 season.

His aerial ability is one of the natural strengths that allowed him to adapt quickly to League One football and alerted bigger clubs of his potential to play at a higher level.