Quintet Sign Valley Deals

Rugby Town are pleased to announce agreements have been reached with five key squad members to keep them at Butlin Road until May 2023.

Ash Bodycote, Luke English, Dan Summerfield, Keenah Rooser and Edwin Ahenkorah have all signed contracts with the club this week to commit to the club for the rest of this season and next.

The signatures are part of the club's future plans to succeed on the pitch this season and next as club director Neil Melvin explained: "After a slow start to the season, this group of players has now really gelled and have put very few steps wrong since.

"We have won 19 of the last 21 games including a good run in the FA Vase and we very much want to keep the squad together for now and build on it for next season."

Goalkeeper Ash Bodycote re-signed for Rugby in September with his stand-out moment coming in a penalty shoot-out win over Stourport Swifts in the FA Vase while defender English has impressed since joining the club in September also.

22-year-old Bodycote has impressed on his return to his hometown club after re-joining from Long Buckby in September 2021.

After coming through the youth ranks and then originally signing first team forms in August 2015, a 16-year-old Ash was thrown in at the deep end on the eve of an FA Cup fixture with Coventry Sphinx after Scott Dutton made himself unavailable.

Bodycote left to play local football in March 2018 and has since featured for Long Buckby before re-joining Rugby.

Luke English, who is currently recovering from a foot injury, signed for Rugby from Midland Football League side Worcester City.

The 25-year-old right back immediately impressed the Valley faithful with his attacking contributions from full-back.

Before joining Rugby, Luke had been at Worcester for a last few seasons after spells with Redditch United and Highgate United.

26-year-old Dan Summerfield re-joined Rugby in December 2021 after re-locating back to the area from Wales.

Since his first spell with the club, Dan has had spells with Merthyr Town and more recently Welsh Premier League side Haverfordwest County.

Dan originally joined Rugby in January 2019 from Stratford Town where had only recently re-joined worked under Carl Adams for two seasons up to the end of the 2017/18 season.

Dan, who can operate in defence or midfield, had short spells with Bedworth and Redditch in 2018 and earlier in his career was part of the Merthyr Town team that won the Southern Division One South & West play-offs.

Forward Edwin Ahenkorah re-joined Rugby in September 2021.

The 27-year-old joined for his second spell after last playing for the club in 2019.

Edwin is familiar with working under Carl Adams after spending three seasons at Stratford Town where he scored 36 goals in over 100 appearances.

Ahenkorah originally joined Rugby in January 2019 from Southern League Premier Division side Rushall Olympic.

After starting his career with Birmingham City, the Dutch-born forward has also played for Redditch United.

Edwin scored six goals in the latter part of the 2018/19 season and left the club at the end of the campaign and has since played for Sutton Coldfield.

Keenah Rosser is one of the current longest-serving players having re-signed for Rugby in July 2018.

The 28-year-old right back lists Solihull, Redditch and Boldmere St Michaels amongst his former clubs.

Rosser originally signed for Rugby in 2015 on a dual-registration basis from Solihull Moors and made a handful of appearances under then-boss Gary Mills before leaving soon after.

He had a solid season for Rugby in 2018/19 and won the Manager's Player of the Season award after scoring two league goals in 37 appearances.

Keenah has shown his versatility in recent seasons playing anywhere along the backline.