Joe Lumley joins Royals on a season-long loan

Middlesbrough keeper pens contract at the club which will run until the end of the 2022-23 season

Reading Football Club are pleased to announce that goalkeeper Joe Lumley has put pen to paper on a season-long loan move from Middlesbrough.

The 6’3” stopper stood between the posts on 39 occasions in a Boro side that reached the FA Cup quarter-finals and finished seventh in the Championship last season, keeping a total of 14 clean sheets for the play-off challengers in the process.

The Royals fielded a total of four different goalkeepers in the first team last season, of those only Luke Southwood was contracted to the club from the first day of the season through to the last. So the arrival of Lumley on a season-long deal is expected to offer Paul Ince’s squad consistent competition for the first team gloves throughout 2022-23.

Head of Football Operations, Mark Bowen, said: “Joe is a goalkeeper of proven pedigree who, despite still being relatively young for a keeper, has more than 150 first team appearances on his CV already. After an extensive search and much consideration around the goalkeeping options available to us, we firmly believe Joe will provide vital competition for the no.1 shirt next season and prove an excellent addition to our first team squad. I’m very pleased we have been able to secure his services for 2022-23.”

Born in Harlow, Lumley learned his trade in the youth ranks at Spurs and then QPR, whom he joined in 2010. Three years later, Joe penned his first professional contract with the club and his first team debut came in the FA Cup against Nottingham Forest in January 2016.

After a series of loan stints, most notably with Bristol Rovers and Blackpool, Lumley returned to QPR and replaced the departed Alex Smithies as Rangers’ no.1, making a total of 46 appearances and keeping 16 clean sheets across the 2018-19 campaign at Loftus Road.

Another successful season followed and, having totted up 77 starts at the club, he opted to transfer to Middlesbrough in the summer of 2021.

Last season, Lumley’s first year on Teesside included an FA Cup Fourth Round penalty shootout win over Manchester United – including important saves from the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Marcus Rashford amongst others to help get his side to the shootout stage at Old Trafford.

And in the Fifth Round, Lumley kept a clean sheet against the side he grew up with, keeping out Harry Kane and golden boot-winner Son Heung-min to dump Spurs out of the FA Cup with a 1-0 win courtesy of Josh Coburn’s injury time winner.

Now the 27-year-old has completed the paperwork on a loan move to Reading and he will start training with his new teammates at Bearwood Park when pre-season begins for the first team this week.

Manager Paul Ince said, “The goalkeeping position was a difficult one to solve for this club last season, so it was a priority to add strength in depth to that corner of the dressing room ahead of a brand new challenge in 2022-23. Lumley is a tall, confident, capable young keeper and he will be hungry to stake a claim for the goalkeeper position when he joins us at the start of pre-season training this week.”