Bristol Rovers signed goalkeeper Luke Southwood from Bolton Wanderers last week

Daniel Hargraves Bristol Rovers reporter

10:48, 10 Jul 2025

New Bristol Rovers goalkeeper Luke Southwood was not going to start the season as first choice under Bolton head coach Steven Schumacher(Image: Getty Images)

Bolton Wanderers head coach Steven Schumacher has reflected on the sale of goalkeeper Luke Southwood to Bristol Rovers, revealing that he would have been happy to keep the 27-year-old in the North West, but not as a first choice.

The Whites brought in Teddy Sharman-Lowe on loan from Chelsea last month, identifying the 22-year-old as their pick to be number one following the release of Nathan Baxter.

For Southwood, that meant having to either accept a back-up role at the Toughsheet Community Stadium or seek regular football elsewhere. He chose the latter.

Bolton’s loss should be Rovers’ gain considering the pedigree of goalkeeper the Gas have signed in the form of Southwood, but Schumacher’s vision for his goalkeeping department was clear.

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Speaking to The Bolton News, the Whites boss explained: “I think it came to the point where, obviously I’d put Nathan Baxter in the goal for the last eight or nine games, and then Luke played the final two.

“We said towards the end of the season we were going to change the goalkeeping department.

“We had Teddy lined up a long time ago, so when I spoke to Luke and told him that I’d be bringing him (Sharman-Lowe) in as number one.

“I had no problem with Luke being around us, competing for the shirt and trying to get Teddy out of it. And Luke just said at the age he is at, he wanted to be playing every week.

Luke Southwood is expected to be Bristol Rovers’ number one goalkeeper this season(Image: Bristol Rovers FC)

“I couldn’t guarantee him that, so we got a deal done with Bristol Rovers for him to go there.

“I don’t like players being in a squad who are not happy with where they are.

“And Luke was a really great lad. Again, I put that on record and everything was amicable. And we spoke and said, ‘look, this is just how it is.’

“And he said, ‘I appreciate your honesty. If I’m not going to play for you now, I’ll try and go elsewhere.’ So that’s what’s happened.”

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Southwood was confirmed as the Pirates’ sixth signing of the summer last weekend for what is believed to be a nominal undisclosed fee.

The goalkeeper jetted out to Spain with his new teammates and has been training with Rovers this week during the warm weather camp. He is expected to make his first appearance for the Gas on Saturday when they take on League One side Stockport County in a friendly.

Having played 46 League One games in back-to-back seasons for Cheltenham Town in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons, Southwood made the move to Bolton last summer.

Despite initially being expected to play a deputising role, the ‘keeper still played 26 games for the Whites last term.

Prior to his time at Cheltenham, the Reading academy graduate made 30 appearances for the Royals’ first team, 26 of which in the Championship. He also had loan spells at Bath City, Eastleigh and Hamilton Academical.

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