Former Premier League goalkeeping coach Pat Mountain has joined Mark Cooper’s backroom staff.

Mountain leaves Championship outfit Hull City and replaces former coach  Steve Hale, who played an important part in the club’s promotion to the Football League for the first time in its history, by mutual consent after Saturday’s win over Cambridge United.

Mountain, a former Gloucester City keeper, has UEFA's outfield and goalkeeping coaching 'A' licences and is also an FA accredited tutor of goalkeepers with both their 'A' and 'B' licence qualifications.

He began coaching part-time with Wales Under 21s and at Cardiff City’s academy before spending time at Cheltenham Town with Ian Weston, Rovers' head of medical services. He has also coached at Hereford.

Mountain’s first full-time position came with Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Championship in August 2008 under Mick McCarthy where they were promoted to the Premier League.

After nine years at Molineux, he left the club last summer as they made wholesale changes to the coaching setup, joining fellow Championship side Hull City.

However, Mountain says that his decision to move back down to League Two with FGR shows the intent of the club moving forward.

“I’m genuinely excited,” he said.

“I spoke with the chairman and you could tell he is really thorough and has got Forest Green Rovers’ interests at heart.

“He is in it for the long term and offered me something that I was really excited to get my teeth into.

“The chairman almost blew me away. Without making rash statements, how he was intending to build the club bit by bit and become a solid Football League club that can first and foremost stay in the League and then get to League One, get a new stadium and see where that goes.”

Wanting to make strides forward in the sustainability of the club both on and off the pitch, chairman Dale Vince is in the process of developing a dedicated goalkeeping academy and believes Mountain’s vast experience will be vital in delivering this vision.

"This is a strategic move by the club with the long term very much in mind,” said Vince.

“Goalkeeping is a key area that we want to strengthen in the short term, but also for the medium and long term - by producing our own goalkeepers.

“The plan is to start our own dedicated goalkeeping academy, and Pat is the ideal man to lead that.

“It’s an exciting move, innovative for sure - but makes perfect sense to me - and who knows, in time, we could produce England’s next Under 21 goalkeeper."

The welsh-born coach played for Wales Under 21s at four different age groups before seeing his playing career curtailed at the age of 27 by a knee injury.