3 min read
1st Jul 2022
Wolves goalkeeper Louie Moulden will spend the first half of the 2022/23 season at Solihull Moors having joined the fifth-tier side on loan until January.
The England under-20 international continues his development in non-league having enjoyed a successful spell with Ebbsfleet United during the second half of last season.
Having featured on the bench for Bruno Lage’s first-team alongside his playing time with the under-23s in the opening months of the campaign, Moulden went on to keep six clean sheets during his Ebbsfleet career, with the keeper helping the side reach the National League South Play-off Final.
He will now make the step up to the National League with The Moors, who narrowly missed out on promotion themselves last season. Solihull succumbed to Grimsby Town in the 2021/22 National League Play-off Final earlier this month – the closest the club have come to playing EFL football in their history.
Wolves’ strategic player marketing manager, Matt Jackson, believes the move will be another step in Moulden’s progression up the football pyramid, as the keeper links up with his former international teammate and Moors boss Neal Ardley.
“As I’ve said previously, for goalkeepers, it’s always difficult to get that chance higher up the leagues as there’s only limited opportunities for them,” Jackson said, “so it’s great to see any player moving up the pyramid.
“We’re chuffed that Louie will also be making a local move as it will allow us to keep a closer eye on him than at Ebbsfleet, although they looked after him really well and he came so close to a possible promotion with them, so the experience he had there was brilliant.
“But he’s now staying in the midlands, and it’s nice that we can support local clubs and further strengthen the links that we have with them. I know the manager well from my time with England under-21s, so we go back an awfully long time, and they will look after Louie well until the end of this year for us.
“Alongside Joe Young, Jackson Smith and Andreas Sondergaard, Louie has gone out and progressed well, and that is because we challenge them hard, they work well as a group, and they all push each other. They’re all ambitious and they’re all excellent professionals, who we want to move up the pyramid as quickly as possible.
“Tony [Roberts, goalkeeping coach] puts so much variation into the things that they do, so all of our young goalkeepers get the chance to train with the first-team and they get matchday experience with the first-team. We also encourage them to go out on loan and have those uncomfortable experiences which they only get by playing in game situations, and this latest opportunity will only further Louie’s development.”
