Brighton's tip-off sent Dons into the market for keeper Trueman

Brighton & Hove Albion had given MK Dons a hint they might be recalling Tom McGill back to the Amex Stadium ahead of time, prompting Scott Lindsey to up his pursuit of new signing Connal Trueman.

The 28-year-old keeper arrived from Millwall on deadline day, around the same time as McGill’s recall to the Premier League side was confirmed.

Trueman had spent much of the first-half of the season on loan at Crawley, but never crossed paths with the Dons head coach, who had been in charge of the Reds until September. The keeper had moved to West Sussex in October on emergency loan initially after Rob Elliot took over, making six appearances.

Along with injury to Craig MacGillivray - a fracture rib - which looks set to sideline him for a few weeks, Lindsey said Brighton’s alert had fast-tracked Dons’ move for Trueman, who had been earmarked as one to watch should they need a keeper during the window.

“It was flagged about a week earlier that (Brighton) were thinking about calling Tom back, so we had to work quickly,” Lindsey confirmed.

“We've got a good recruitment team so we had a shortlist of keepers already, so we just got to work with that and made it happen.”

On the addition of his new shot-stopper, Lindsey added: “Connall is someone I didn't know a lot about, though after speaking to people at Crawley about him, they spoke really highly of him. We watched him in detail, and with Brighton calling Tom back, and Craig injured at the moment, we needed a keeper.

“He fits the bill really well, he has trained well too so we're excited to see him.”