Notts County have completed the loan signing of highly-rated Sunderland goalkeeper Anthony Patterson.
Patterson has joined the club until the end of October and arrives after number one Sam Slocombe suffered a knock in training.
Slocombe's injury is not serious with the former Scunthorpe stopper expected to be out for up to three weeks.
Notts have moved swiftly to fill Slocombe's position by moving for Patterson who has made four appearances for Sunderland this season.
Head coach Ian Burchnall is thought to have utilised his relationship with Sunderland goalkeeper coach David Preece with the pair having worked together at Ostersund.
Patterson, who is line to make his debut against Altrincham tomorrow, is tipped to have a big future at the Stadium of Light and Burchnall was pleased to have him on board.
“As disappointed as we are to have lost Sam, we’re delighted to have been able to add another quality loan player in Anthony,” said the head coach.
"I know people at Sunderland and they rate him really highly, as evidenced by his involvement in their first-team environment not only this season but over the past few years.
“He trained with the boys today and we’ll do everything we can to fully prepare him for Altrincham.
"Contact injuries like Sam’s and Connell Rawlinson’s are inevitable over the course of a long season but to lose them both at the same time as Kyle Cameron is very unfortunate.
"These are the challenges football poses, though, and the important thing is to be prepared to deal with them, which I feel we have been.”
Notts' other goalkeeping option was to recall Tiernan Brooks from his loan spell with Worksop Town.
The academy graduate produced some impressive performances for the Magpies in pre-season and is winning plaudits for his displays at Sandy Lane.
And Burchnall said he was keen for Brooks to continue his development with the Tigers on matchdays.
“He’s doing really well there and we don’t want to disrupt that,” said Burchnall.
“As much as we rate Tiernan and feel he has a bright future with us, he still has a lot of development ahead of him before he’s ready for first-team football with us.
“He understands that and is applying himself brilliantly at Worksop, which will do him the world of good.”
Patterson will wear the shirt number 25 and is expected to be one of two players expected to make their debuts tomorrow.
Earlier this week, Notts added Sheffield Wednesday defender Ciaran Brennan to their ranks after Connell Rawlinson picked up an injury in training while Kyle Cameron suffered a hamstring problem in last weekend's win over Maidenhead.
