GOALKEEPER Rene Gilmartin has signed on-loan for Crawley Town in the wake of the injury to Scott Shearer.
Regular stopper Shearer faces a long spell out with an injured right knee, and after discovering the prognosis was not good yesterday, Reds manager Steve Evans has swooped to sign 24-year-old Watford keeper Gilmartin.
The 6ft 5in tall Gilmartin had been on loan at Yeovil and looked set to join another League 1 club before Evans swooped.
Evans said: “Rene is a talented lad and was set for a loan move to a club in League 1 but (Watford manager) Sean Dyche gave me permission last night to talk to the lad. Following our chat he took some time to think through what was best for him and I was delighted when he telephoned me to say he wanted to join Crawley Town.
“Rene has initially joined us until the end of March but that date can be extended if all parties are happy with that. At that stage we will also know much more about Scott Shearer and when he will be back.
“Rene is a big lad with a great presence and his distribution is excellent. He was on my radar when he was at Walsall but he got a great move to Watford at the time.
“There is now a very disappointed League 1 manager who thought the lad was signing for him tomorrow but that’s football. Rene trained very well this morning, his handling was immaculate and is another great addition to the squad although I would obviously have preferred it was not in these circumstances.”