New Town signing Bartosz Bialkowski has underlined his determination to become the first-choice keeper at Portman Road.

The 27-year-old Pole will make his competitive debut in tonight’s Capital One Cup first round visit to Crawley but intends to push Dean Gerken all the way for the number one senior slot.

Bialkowski, who arrived from Notts County last month, said: “Deano did really well last season so I think it was an easy decision for the gaffer to stick with him.

“He’s a great goalkeeper and a really good lad as well. But, you know, I’m not happy to be a number two. I want to fight for my place and I will.

“It’s always good to have good, healthy competition and Deano is a great lad. I’m really enjoying working with him but you never know what is going to happen.

“Football is a funny game and you never know what is around the corner. I’m going to keep training hard and trying to push for that number one spot.”

Bialkowski is happy to be at Ipswich after two seasons with the Magpies in League One, having previously been at Southampton, who paid a nominal fee to sign him from Gornik Zabrze in his native Poland.

He added: “I have settled in really well here to be honest. The lads have made me really welcome and I feel at home already. I have moved into my new house and it has been a really good two weeks in terms of training sessions and preparation for a new season, so I feel good.

“I felt it was the right time for me to move on again. I had two good seasons at Notts County and it was always my plan to try to move on to a bigger club.

“I think the Championship is my level and I am confident I can play every week. It was a massive move for me to join Notts County from Southampton.

“I needed to play games and I made the decision to leave. Keith Curle signed me as a number one keeper and I was playing every week at Notts County. That is when you improve and I got better in every single aspect of my game while I was there.”

Photo: Action Images

ThatMuhrenCross added 07:01 - Aug 12 "I think the Championship is my level..." Ah, ambitious then?
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Jimmy86 added 08:20 - Aug 12 Gerken did well enough last season Bart, but had too many costly mistakes in him, as was demonstrated against fulham when he fumbled the shot straight at him, although recovering from it very well. Play well tonight and it will give mick somethin to think about for sure
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Lightningboy added 10:53 - Aug 12 Good that Gerken's got some serious competition breathing down his neck..he got away with that spill on saturday..I think he knows that too many more of those types of cock-ups and he'll be out.
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londonben added 12:43 - Aug 12 To be fair to Gerks it was a shot that came through a crowd and bounced right in front of him, and he recovered well. I want to see him pushed for number 1, but I don't think there's anything worse than chopping and changing keepers, really undermines personal confidence and also confidence in the defence as a whole.
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Steve_ITFC_Sweden added 13:36 - Aug 12 I'd like to see Bart given a chance, but I think there's probably very little to choose between the two.
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jas0999 added 18:47 - Aug 12 Jimmy86 - completely agree. Gerkens okay, no better than that. Prone to an error or two, which last season did end up proving costly on a couple of occasions.
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