Lewis earns new deal at the Pirates

A COV Kid who played in the same team as Coventry City’s Jordan Ponticelli has earned a new deal at Bristol Rovers.

Former Cardinal Wiseman schoolboy Lewis Ludford-Ison also played in the same school team as ex-Sky Blues Academy star Bassala Sambou, now with Premier League Everton, before becoming a team-mate of Ponticelli at the Strachan Football Foundation based at Rugby.

It was while at the Foundation – set up by former Sky Blues boss Gordon Strachan to help young lads pursue a career in football – that he was spotted by League One Rovers when he played in a friendly against their youth side, and invited down for a trial.

Two months in to an initial three-month deal with the club’s Under-23s development squad, the centre-half impressed so much that the club extended his contract at the Memorial Stadium until the end of the season.

However, injury held him back and the club have now handed him a new extension ahead of the 2018/19 campaign to enable the defender to prove himself to development boss Chris Hargreaves.

“It’s been a tough season after being hit with a big injury so early on,” said Ludford-Ison.

Ludford-Ison grew up in Longford and Stoke Green, and went to Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School.

“Bass Sambou is a good friend of mine and we were in the same year and played in the same school team at Cardinal Wiseman, and also for Cov Jag on a Sunday.

“We both went on trial at Coventry City’s Academy together and obviously he was taken on. They said I was too small but soon after that I shot up. I’m 6ft 1 now.

“I left Cov Jag and went to Sphinx Under-18s on a Saturday and then went to the Strachan Football Foundation where I was at college and played in the same team as Jordan Ponticelli, who is a year younger than me. Then in my third year I suffered a bad knee injury and had to have an operation before playing for Cov United at the back end of last season.

“I played for the Foundation in a friendly against Bristol Rovers in the April and then later that summer I was due to go to study in America after securing a scholarship at the University of Ohio. But I was asked to go for a trial at Bristol and they gave me a short-term deal which was extended to the end of the season.”