Stockport County have officially signed a goalkeeper who spent time at Liverpool.
Liverpool FC as a whole tends to leave its fingerprints all over the Football League, and another set turned up on Friday when a League One club confirmed the permanent capture of a goalkeeper who once trained on Merseyside.
The association was fleeting.
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In March 2019, Liverpool’s Under 18s found themselves short of a body between the posts midway through a campaign that would end with the FA Youth Cup lifted, so an academy stopper was drafted in from Fulham on a short term basis to provide emergency cover.
He never played a competitive minute in red and soon went back to Craven Cottage, yet the line has stayed on his CV ever since.
They officially agreed a deal Luca Ashby-Hammond, and on 31 July he agreed a one year contract at Edgeley Park with Stockport County.
For the 25 year old it is a homecoming of sorts.
Ashby-Hammond spent the second half of Stockport’s National League title winning season in 2021/22 on loan with the Hatters, serving as understudy to Ben Hinchliffe.
He made a single competitive appearance in that spell, starting an FA Trophy quarter final victory away at Needham Market, and was also involved in a successful Cheshire Senior Cup campaign that ended with a final win over Vauxhall Motors at Edgeley Park.
His grounding came at Fulham, where he arrived in 2009 alongside older brother Taye, now with Barnet in League Two.
A competitive senior appearance for the Cottagers never materialised, but the loan mileage piled up.
Eleven outings at Harrow Borough gave him his first senior minutes, before a full National League season at Aldershot Town brought 45 appearances and genuine responsibility.
Spells at Crawley Town, Notts County and Gillingham followed as he worked his way through the EFL.
Fulham released him when his contract expired in June 2025, and Plymouth Argyle handed him a one year deal after a successful trial.
He made 24 appearances across all competitions for the Pilgrims last term, 18 of them in League One, including a win over his new employers back in September.
Hinchliffe, now Stockport’s Head of Goalkeeping, said he had kept in touch with Ashby-Hammond since their title winning season together and rates him highly, describing him as a talented shot stopper who is excellent in possession and brings both experience and a strong work ethic to the department.
He also noted that the goalkeeper spent a week with the squad during pre season, featuring in a closed doors friendly against Tranmere Rovers, and settled in quickly.
Ashby-Hammond, who recalled the Edgeley Park atmosphere as “always fantastic” from his visit with Plymouth, joins Ollie Whatmuff and Andrew Wogan in the goalkeeping ranks ahead of the new campaign.
It is a modest footnote in Liverpool terms, but a neat reminder of how far the club’s academy network once reached.