GUISELEY have announced that academy graduate Lewis Hey has signed a new and improved contract with the club.

The young midfielder is finally hoping to show what he can do in men’s football after tying himself down to another season with Guiseley AFC by signing a new and improved contract.

Hey, 19, proved himself a prodigious talent coming through the ranks of the Guiseley Academy set up but the last few years have proved frustrating what with Covid disrupting the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons and injury hitting his attempts to grab a regular spot in the first team in 2021-22.

Now, on the threshold of the 2022-23 season, the Bingley student is one of the four players who have stood by the club after the side was relegated from National League North to the Pitching In Northern Premier League.

His reasons for that? “I feel that I owe the club something, Guiseley gave me a good introduction to men’s football so I feel respectful to the club for that, I feel something for the club. After the disappointment of injuries and relegation last season I am now looking to get plenty of minutes under the new manager Danny Ellis. He knows all about me having been my coach for a number of years in the Academy. He knows how I work and I know how he works so I am looking forward to it,” he said.

He added: “After the disappointment of last season I spoke to my family about the situation, my dad Nicky used to play for Guiseley, and I decided that I needed to get more established in men’s football and I feel that the ideal way to do that is to throw myself into this new level that Guiseley are playing at and push on from there.

“I am very impressed with the signings Danny has made, Jorge Sikora I played with as a 15/16 year-old at Bradford City and he was a monster and very good technically. We will see great physicality from him and I am sure he will be trying hard to re-establish himself and make his mark. I was also impressed with Ethan Cartwright who played half-a-dozen games at the end of last season – he was so strong in the tackle,” said Hey.

Hey sees the new season as all about getting more minutes on the pitch and getting as much experience as he can under his belt. He said:”I had a good introduction to men’s football under Russ O’Neill and Marcus Bignot but this is now about getting my name out there. Looking at the squad the new management is pulling together you get a good sense that this will be a good season for the club.

“Danny Ellis has outlined the role I will be fulfilling and I cannot wait to get started. He has said that I will play in an attacking midfield position in a No 8 or 10 role and that suits me fine. It is the position I see myself in and the one I am best placed to play, the one I play my best football in.”

Hey added: “I am excited to work with Danny Ellis at this level, we had some good successes together with the Academy, especially that win at Bolton Wanderers in the FA Youth Cup, moments like that you will never forget. I am also looking forward to working with Danny Forrest. It is very positive that he has shown enough trust in a young player in Lewis Gardner to bring him with him to Guiseley from his old club Silsden. To show that amount of trust in a youngster and the willingness to give young players a chance is very positive for me.”

Having just completed his first year with great success as a student in sports marketing at Leeds Beckett University Hey is very pleased that first team training has returned to a more local venue at West Park RUFC at Bramhope.

“It was a long trek to train at Sheffield, the core of the team is much more local now and it will be much better for us to not have such long journeys to training,” said Hey.

Hey signed his first contract with Guiseley AFC following his 18th birthday in March 2021 and he enjoyed a series of trials at Stoke City, Sunderland and Brentford in the summer of 2021. Towards the end of last season he trained with Barnsley FC and played for their Under-23s. He is still hoping to make enough of an impression with Guiseley to move on to a Football League club like his club colleague Nathan Newall did to Sunderland last year and Josh Stones has done to Wigan this year.