Town keeper Tomas Holy's loan move to League Two Port Vale for the rest of the season has been confirmed.
The 30-year-old, who is out of contract in the summer, has been the Blues’ third-choice keeper behind Christian Walton and Vaclav Hladky for most of the season and in October spent a seven-day emergency spell on loan at Cambridge United.
In total, the 6ft 9in tall keeper has made 65 appearances for the Blues since signing on a free after leaving Gillingham in the summer of 2019.
Vale manager Darrell Clarke told his club's official site: "He’s obviously a big lad, but the main thing for me is that he’s played over 150 League One games and he comes in to add really good competition to the other two goalkeepers.
"We strive for competition for places and he certainly adds to that. We’ve got three keepers now, we’ll roll with the three and they can all work hard together and make sure they’re ready for the big occasions because we have a lot of big games coming up.
"There’s 22 games left of the season and they come in such a short space of time, so he just keeps giving us really good competition in that area. I’m delighted to bring him in and I hope he settles in well.”
The Staffordshire club weren’t the only side to have targeted Holy this month with Bradford City having been among the other suitors prior to signing Alex Bass on loan from Portsmouth earlier in the week.
Speaking on Friday, Town manager Kieran McKenna confirmed that Holy was being eyed by various clubs and that he had spoken to the Czech.
"We’ve had conversations with Tomas as a club and there has been interest in him,” McKenna said.
"Obviously, he’s played in League One before and proven to be a good goalkeeper and is at an age where he wants to play games and wants to compete, and he is a very competitive man. We’re looking at that with him and there has been interest from a few different clubs.
"I think if the fit is right for Tomas, then it’s an opportunity for him and we feel with Christian and Vaclav, we have two very good goalkeepers.
"We have some good young goalkeepers behind that as well who are with us and help with training, and we also feel that they are there for cover if need be.
"So we’re comfortable with where we are and Tomas is one that if the right opportunity comes up at the right club with the opportunity for him to play then, we’ll try and support him with that if we can.”
Holy has been on the bench for the last two Town matches due to Hladky having been unwell. On Friday, the Blues recalled youngster Bert White from his loan at Gosport Borough as cover ahead of Holy’s probable departure.