Notts County have signed Liverpool goalkeeper Vitezslav Jaros as the Magpies made a breakthrough in their push to give competition to Sam Slocombe.
Jaros has signed a deal until the end of the season and is likely to be involved with the squad that travels to Bromley in the National League at the weekend.
Notts had been forced to move for a goalkeeper after Anthony Patterson's loan spell was cut short by Sunderland as Lee Burge continues to recover from Covid.
That had left Slocombe and young Tiernan Brooks as the only goalkeepers on the books with the latter now expected to head out on loan himself in order to aid his development.
Head coach Ian Burchnall said he was thrilled to land Jaros and believes he will challenge Slocombe for the number one spot.
"Vitezslav comes very highly recommended to me by a friend at Liverpool and Michael Doyle has taken a number of very good references from Ireland, so we’re delighted to have him here," he said.
“It’s well documented that we want to get Tiernan Brooks out on loan to further his first-team experience, and as a consequence of that we needed to bring someone else in.
“I didn’t want that person to be a number two who’s comfortable sitting behind Sam Slocombe. Like in every area of the pitch, we want challenge in order to raise the bar.
“Sam was excellent at Wealdstone, has had a good season and is a top professional. He will be driven on by Vitezslav and vice-versa.”
Jaros, 20, is a Czech youth international and arrived at Anfield in 2017 from Slavia Prague, initially joining Steven Gerrard’s Under-18s’ team.
He helped the Reds secure the prestigious FA Youth Cup in his second season at Anfield before making his first senior appearance in a friendly against Tranmere in 2019/20.
He has also been named on the bench for Liverpool’s Champions League matches against Ajax and FC Midtjylland and started against Tranmere and Port Vale in the EFL Trophy.
Later in the campaign he joined Irish top-flight side St Patrick’s Athletic in what proved to be a hugely successful loan move as he kept 11 clean sheets in 38 matches and scooped the club’s player of the season.
And his stay in Ireland reached the perfect conclusion in late November as St Pat’s emerged victorious from a closely-contested FAI Cup final against Bohemians played out in front of 37,000 fans at the Aviva Stadium.
Goalkeeper coach Tom Weal added: “As soon as we knew Anthony Patterson wouldn’t be returning we put a shortlist together and, once we’d done our research, Vitezslav was our best option by a distance.
“He’s really confident with the ball at his feet and is happy to play high up the pitch, defending spaces in behind. He had a lot of exposure to defending balls into the box in Ireland and has a good physical presence. He’s a confident lad, as well.
“We’ve had excellent dialogue with him and he spoke about his desire to play at the highest level – he’s got that thirst from training with top goalkeepers like Alisson and Adrian over the last 18 months and is coming here champing at the bit and ready to fight for his place.
“He had watched our last four or five games and identified us as a club he wanted to play for, despite having offers from a higher level. Our staff, the way we play and our facilities have once again allowed us to compete with clubs from a higher level for talented loan players, which bodes well for the future.
“Everyone in the goalkeeping department will benefit from this. We have a really strong dynamic with Sam’s experience, Tiernan’s potential and Vitezlav coming in to provide competition. It’s really exciting and hopefully we’ll see positive outcomes as the season goes on.”
