With his Sheffield Wednesday contract about to expire, keeper Cameron Dawson, 28, is in talks to join Bristol Rovers on a free transfer. The 28-year-old will be rejoining his former Exeter City manager Matt Taylor.
Dawson, who played in 45 of the Grecians’ 46 league games that season and was Taylor’s top player en route to promotion to League One, has been extended an offer by the Owls. On Wednesday, he went back to his parent club. He began the next season in the third division, initially starting behind David Stockdale, but he eventually established himself as a regular when the Owls advanced to the Championship through the play-offs.
However, the custodian did have a stint as first choice from October to January, during which he made 18 Championship appearances, although he spent the majority of the previous season as an understudy, backing up loanees Devis Vasquez and James Beadle.
Naturally, before to the start of the new season, concerns about what it means for Jed Ward would arise with the arrival of a custodian of Dawson’s calibre. The Rovers school graduate signed a four-year contract in March and had a great run as the starting custodian in the second half of the previous season. However, he turned 21 last month, making him especially young for goalkeeping standards.
Whatever effect Dawson’s arrival has on the pecking order between the sticks, Rovers needed to add a more experienced custodian this summer. Taylor took over a squad that included three 20-year-old shot stoppers, one of whom hasn’t made his senior debut. Ward will return to The Quarters for pre-season with two England Under-20 caps under his belt after a productive time away with the Young Lions, which perfectly capped off his breakthrough campaign.
The story of Rovers’ goalkeeping department began about a year ago when Joey Barton decided to start 20-year-old Matt Cox on loan from Brentford, selecting the rookie ahead of James Belshaw, who had been the team’s top scorer the previous two seasons. In the men’s game, the former Gas manager gave Cox his first opportunity and made it obvious that he wanted a shot stopper who was more at ease on his feet.
After the promotion hero asked for a transfer and was left out of Rovers’ squads until the summer window closed with no move coming through, this ultimately led to Barton publicly sacking Belshaw. After that, the 33-year-old participated in two EFL Trophy games before joining Forest Green Rovers on what has been dubbed ‘the longest emergency loan in history.’
