Exclusive: Bristol Rovers set to beat Wigan Athletic & Lincoln City to Stockport County player | OneFootball

Macauley Southam-Hales is set to become a Gas player

Bristol Rovers have agreed a deal to sign right-back Macauley Southam-Hales on a free transfer, sources have exclusively told Football League World.

The Gas are on the rebuild under the returning Darrell Clarke as manager, and are looking to right the wrongs of last season, where they were relegated back into League Two after three years in the third tier.

Rovers got their business underway this week with the signing of Peterborough United left-back Jack Sparkes, and Clarke is set to bolster the other side of the pitch with his next bit of business.

Bristol Rovers set to seal Macauley Southam-Hales signing

FLW has been told that Southam-Hales is set to become a Bristol Rovers player following his exit from Stockport County.

As per an exclusive story earlier this week, League One duo Wigan Athletic and Lincoln City also put contracts on the table for the 29-year-old, but it appears that the Gas are set to be the winners of this particular battle.

And when signed, it will represent a move closer to home for Southam-Hales, who was born and raised in Welsh capital Cardiff.

Southam-Hales is set to arrive as right-back competition for Joel Senior, who played 19 times in League One last season for Rovers following his summer 2024 move from Morecambe, and was kept out of the starting 11 for most of the campaign by the more experienced Jack Hunt.

What Macauley Southam-Hales has done at Stockport County to make him a Bristol Rovers target

Southam-Hales has departed Stockport after five successful years at Edgeley Park, where he's played his part in two promotions from the National League through to League One.

Signed from Fleetwood Town after starting his career in the Welsh footballing system with Barry Town United, Southam-Hales was a regular for the Hatters in his first two years with the club as they were promoted from the fifth tier of English football in 2022, but injuries saw him restricted to just nine League Two outings in 2022-23.

Disaster struck once more in February 2024 when the defender suffered a ruptured patella tendon, keeping the Welshman out for nine months at a time where he had assisted seven Stockport goals in just 21 league matches, and when he returned to action last November, he scored three times in 17 League One games to help the club into the play-offs, with his final outing coming in March 2025.