19:52, 06 Jul 2025<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_GettyImages-2208842830.jpg\")
Luke Southwood has joined Bristol Rovers from Bolton Wanderers(Image: Richard Martin-Roberts – CameraSport via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
New Bristol Rovers goalkeeper Luke Southwood has insisted he is “buzzing” after the 27-year-old became the Gas’ sixth signing of the summer, joining from Bolton Wanderers on a two-year deal for an undisclosed fee.<\/p>\n
Southwood played 26 times for Bolton across all competitions last season as he closely competed with Nathan Baxter, who has since joined Championship club Watford, for the number one shirt at the Toughsheet Community Stadium.<\/p>\n
The Oxford-born shot stopper has also been capped at international level once with Northern Ireland and was part of their most recent camp last month, included on the bench for friendlies against Denmark and Iceland.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Darrell Clarke lifts lid on Bristol Rovers’ remaining business as Gas start pre-season with win<\/a>READ MORE: Bristol Rovers begin League Two preparations with narrow friendly victory at Chippenham<\/a><\/p>\n Rovers’ latest addition is set to be the club’s new number one ‘keeper for the upcoming League Two campaign, and has joined his new teammates out in Spain for their training camp this week.<\/p>\n \u201cI am buzzing,\u201d Southwood told club media. \u201cI\u2019m really happy to get it done, and I can\u2019t wait to get going.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve played against the club loads of times over the last few years, and the fanbase is brilliant. You can feel the passion, and I just feel like it\u2019s a club that\u2019s matching my ambition, and I want to get on board with it.\u201d<\/p>\n Southwood has previously worked with head coach Darrell Clarke at Cheltenham Town in the 2023\/24 season as the goalkeeper played all 46 League One matches for the Robins that term.<\/p>\n On working with the ‘keeper again, Clarke said: \u201cIt is great to welcome Luke to Bristol Rovers<\/a>. Having worked with him previously, I know first-hand not only the quality and calmness he possesses but the great personality he has too.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is very good with his feet, a strong influence on the defensive line, and a super shot-stopper too. I am looking forward to working with him again this season.\u201d<\/p>\n Director of football Ricky Martin added: “Luke is an experienced first-choice goalkeeper who has played across the EFL, most recently in League One with Bolton.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is someone that both Darrell and James Bittner, our head Of goalkeeping, know very well and think very highly of. His playing style from the back is suited to how we are looking to mould our team heading into the new season.\u201d<\/p>\n Prior to joining Cheltenham in 2022, initially on loan, Southwood came through the youth ranks at Reading before going on to make 30 appearances for the Royals’ first-team, 25 of which coming in the Championship.<\/p>\n Join Bristol Rovers Live’s Whatsapp community for all the biggest Bristol Rovers stories sent straight to your phone<\/strong><\/p>\n Bristol Rovers Live<\/a> is now on WhatsApp and we want you to join our community.<\/p>\n Through the app, we\u2019ll send the Bristol Rovers news, live match coverage, team news, transfers, fixtures, analysis and more straight to your phone.<\/p>\n To join our community you need to already have WhatsApp. All you need to do is click this link and select \u2018Join Community\u2019.<\/a><\/p>\n No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Bristol Live<\/a> team.<\/p>\n We also treat community members to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. If you don\u2019t like our community, you can check out at any time you like.<\/p>\n To leave our community, click on the name at the top of your screen and choose \u2018Exit group\u2019.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.<\/a><\/p>\n Click here to join our WhatsApp community.<\/a><\/p>\n While a youngster at Reading, the goalkeeper had loan spells at Bath City, Eastleigh and Hamilton Academical and later joined Cheltenham on loan in 2022 before making the move permanent the following season. Southwood then joined Bolton last summer following the Gloucestershire outfit’s relegation.<\/p>\n Bristol Live understands that the goalkeeper’s arrival means that Rovers will seek a loan move for academy graduate Jed Ward this summer. As well as Southwood, the Gas have also added 23-year-old ‘keeper Brad Young to their ranks on a free transfer from Leicester City.<\/p>\n Ward played Rovers’ final 18 League One matches last term having been recalled from a loan spell at Forest Green Rovers on deadline day after then-number one Josh Griffiths was recalled by his parent club West Brom in a domino effect.<\/p>\n As well as Southwood and Young, the Pirates have also signed left-back Jack Sparkes from Peterborough United, centre-back Alfie Kilgour from Mansfield Town, right-back Macauley Southam-Hales from Stockport County and midfielder Josh McEachran from Oxford United.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Chippenham Town 1-2 Bristol Rovers recap: Sotiriou and Anthony goals seal first friendly win<\/a>READ MORE: \u00cd\u00f1igo Calder\u00f3n lands new head coach role two months after Bristol Rovers departure<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bristol Rovers have confirmed their sixth signing of the summer transfer window Daniel Hargraves Bristol Rovers reporter 19:52,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,2707,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-243417","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-rovers-fc","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114807956090684174","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1744476931_129_0_WhatsApp-Phone.jpg\")
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