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Coventry City have completed the free transfer signing of striker Leon Clarke from Championship side Charlton on a two-and-a-half year contract.

The much-travelled 27-year-old was initially signed on loan last week as replacement for Ipswich-bound 18-goal Sky Blues top scorer David McGoldrick.

Clarke made his first Coventry start in Saturday's 3-0 FA Cup defeat by Spurs.

"We knew it would be difficult to keep hold of David McGoldrick, so we've acted quickly," said boss Mark Robins.

"We wanted to bring someone in that can score goals at this level and Leon can do that, as he has proven."

Clarke, who is now tied to Coventry until 30 June 2015, has spent much of this season on loan at Scunthorpe, scoring 11 goals in 15 games before returning briefly to Charlton in December.

He made his Sky Blues debut as a second-half substitute in the 1-0 New Year's Day home defeat by Shrewsbury, missing a chance to put Coventry ahead with his first touch.

That was Coventry's first defeat since 10 November, for which Clarke was responsible, having netted both Scunthorpe goals in their 2-1 win at the Ricoh Arena.

Clarke, who has made just seven appearances for Charlton since signing from Swindon 12 months ago, joins his 14th club in a professional career which began with home-town club Wolves in 2003.

"We need to fully integrate him into the squad as we've been doing over the last couple of games," added Robins.

"He has shown, like he did against us this season, that he can give defences a torrid time and we believe he's the kind of player that can score a lot of goals for us."