Derby loan for ´keeper Jones

Championship club Derby County have signed Australian international goalkeeper Brad Jones on loan from Liverpool for the rest of the season.

Derby found themselves without a senior goalkeeper after loanees Frank Fielding and Matt Duke returned to Blackburn Rovers and Hull City respectively. Stephen Bywater began as the team’s first-choice goalkeeper this season, but fell out of favour and is on loan at Championship rivals Cardiff City. Jones, 29, will become the second Liverpool player to join Derby on loan following the arrival of Daniel Ayala in February.”Matt (Duke) was due to play for our reserves on Tuesday, but we got a late call from Hull to say they wished to recall him,” Derby manager Nigel Clough said.”They were perfectly entitled to do that as he is their player, so we had to use our contacts pretty quickly to get someone of sufficient quality in the building.””Brad fits the bill perfectly; he has Premier League experience, Football League experience and – importantly – big-game experience.””We have some big games coming up between now and May, and he will be our number one in them.””He hasn’t had much first-team football this season, so I’m pretty sure he will be looking forward to the challenge.””He also knows Daniel Ayala well and he has also played with Shaun Barker in the past which will be good for him when working with the back four going into his first game at Cardiff.””Liverpool have done us a big favour and I would like to thank Kenny Dalglish and the other officials at Anfield for agreeing to loan another of their players to Derby County. “Jones began his career with Middlesbrough, making 57 appearances for the senior team between 2001 and 2010. He was loaned out on six occasions during that time, before joining English Premier League club Liverpool in August 2010.Jones made his full international debut for Australia in 2007 and has won three caps for the Socceroos.