![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0_Tom-Lockyer-file-photo.jpg\")
(Image: PA)<\/p>\nThe 30-year-old defender successfully came through 57 minutes in his first competitive match since December 2023 when he suffered a cardiac arrest(Image: PA)<\/p>\n
Tom Lockyer’s return to football did little to inspire 10-man Bristol Rovers<\/a> today (October 25) as they suffered a devastating 4-0 blow against Crawley – their fourth consecutive league defeat.<\/p>\n Lockyer, 30, started the game and successfully came through 57 minutes in his first competitive match since December 2023<\/a> when he suffered a cardiac arrest during Luton\u2019s Premier League game against Bournemouth.<\/p>\n A first half own goal from Alfie Kilgour and second half strikes by Harry Forster, Scott Malone and Louis Flower gave Crawley their first win in six league outings.<\/p>\n After a cagey opening, the game came to life after 34 minutes when Rovers defender Jack Sparkes received a straight red card for handling a corner from Kyle Scott.<\/p>\n Striker Ryan Loft stepped up to take the penalty but his spot kick cannoned off keeper Luke Southwood\u2019s right-hand post.<\/p>\n Rovers striker Shaqai Forde had a shot come back off the underside of the bar before Crawley broke the deadlock when defender Kilgour deflected a shot from Malone into his own net deep into first half added time.<\/p>\n The Red Devils doubled their advantage seven minutes after the break through substitute Forster who netted easily at the far post from Malone\u2019s cross, and Malone made it 3-0 after 70 minutes with a close-range shot.<\/p>\n Substitute Flower sealed victory by firing home four minutes from time.<\/p>\n Tom Lockyer left Luton last month but he has since been training with Rovers – and on Thursday signed a deal until the end of the season at the club where he made over 280 appearances between 2013 and 2019.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels really, really good to once again be a Bristol Rovers player,\u201d Lockyer said.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously I\u2019ve been training here for a while and I\u2019ve tried not to think too much about it or get too excited about the ifs, buts and maybes.<\/p>\n \u201cBut as soon as I knew that Darrell (Clarke, manager) wanted to get something done, it was easy for me to then make a decision about coming back home.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is so hard to explain but it\u2019s everything I\u2019ve worked so hard for over the last two years. Hopefully I can have many, many more good memories in a football shirt.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to celebrate the little wins back on a football pitch and I just want to enjoy it. I wouldn\u2019t be doing this otherwise.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m doing this because I love playing football and I\u2019ve got that massive desire to play football again, and what better place to do that than back home at Bristol Rovers.\u201d<\/p>\n Click here to join our WhatsApp group<\/a>Privacy Notice<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 30-year-old defender successfully came through 57 minutes in his first competitive match since December 2023 when he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528328,"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-528327","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\/115438426742110864","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528327","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=528327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}