City have completed the signing of young goalkeeper Jamie Pardington on a two-year deal.
Pardington is a graduate of the Wolverhampton Wanderers Academy, where he worked with current Imps goalkeeping coach Scott Fry. The young keeper had loan spells away from Wolves, making his EFL debut with Mansfield Town when still just 20.
The 23-year-old has also had spells in the EFL with Grimsby Town and Cheltenham Town, and was released by the latter at the end of last season. He admitted he is particularly looking forward to working with Fry again.
“I’ve worked with Scott in the past, we get on really well and I like his style of coaching. It will definitely benefit me to work with him again,” he said.
“The facilities are really impressive and I can see it’s a really good club, with lots of good people. I buy into that and feel this is the right place to be at in order to develop.
“I had a taste of League One football last season at Cheltenham. I have still got a long way to go; I’m young but in order to progress, try to be selected for some cup games and whatever playing time I can get, I’m chomping at the bit for it.”
Director of football Jez George added “Jamie fits the profile that we wanted to add to our goalkeeping department and comes highly recommended by Scott. We want someone to relish the role of being our No.2 goalkeeper, to push Lukas and strive to challenge for the No.1 spot in the future.
“We feel that Jamie ticks those boxes. The quality of goalkeepers that we have helped to develop over the past four seasons – Alex Palmer, Josh Griffiths, Carl Rushworth, plus Sam Long, Jordan and Lukas – is one of the the reasons why we are an attractive option for young goalkeepers.
“We are really pleased to add Jamie to this impressive list and we welcome him to the club.”
Pardington made just one appearance for the Robins, coming on as a 27th-minute sub at Stevenage for the injured Luke Southwood on the final day of the season. He later conceded a penalty, with his side losing 2-1 and being relegated.
Great! Are you sure he conceded a penalty? It’s not on the Youtube highlights nor shown in any match stats pages I’ve found.