'I was in bed watching Love Island': Ex-Bristol City man on the life-changing moment 12 months ago when Portsmouth became his destiny

Certainly he couldn’t have foreseen how his life would alter so drastically since this time last year.

On the books of Bristol City, 12 months ago the talented defender was included on the Championship club’s Austrian training camp and later handed 30 minutes in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Pompey.

Nonetheless, a loan move and the cherished chance of regular first-team football elsewhere remained his ambition.

That finally arrived on deadline day, with a September 2022 switch to AFC Wimbledon with hours to spare.

It involved Towler having to put down his remote control and get out of bed to make the late-night dash to the Robins High Performance Centre to seal the loan.

Now he’s an established League One performer, eyeing retaining his place in a Blues side gunning for promotion.

Towler told The News: ‘It’s scary when you think about where I was this time last year. It shows in football you never know what’s going to happen.

‘This time last year I was in Austria with Bristol City’s first-team doing double sessions. It was a tough one, boiling hot, can you believe it gets to 35 degrees in Austria?

‘I played virtually every pre-season game as well, the manager was dividing it up into 60 minutes and 30 minutes, so I would come on half half-an-hour, including against Pompey.

‘But the best thing for me was to get a loan, giving me the chance of games. It didn’t matter what the level was, I’ve always wanted to play.

‘Wimbledon’s Johnnie Jackson called me at the start of the window, but I wasn’t allowed to go out at that point. The club (City) preferred towards the end of the transfer window.

‘It ended up being really, really late on the last day. I was tucked up in bed at 10pm, watching Netflix or something, probably it was Love Island, and I got a call from Brian Tinnion (City’s technical director) telling me about Wimbledon’s interest.

‘I had to get to City’s training ground to sort everything out, but luckily lived in Bristol, it was 10 minutes away, so I got there in time. It was crazy.

‘This was September as well, so I had already missed quite a few games in the season, but everything worked out really well in the end.

‘I went to Wimbledon in League Two and did well, then moved to Pompey in January – and I’m loving it.

‘It just shows you have to keep working, keep improving and, when you get the chance, you’ve got to take it.’

Towler made 24 appearances and scored once during his time at Wimbledon, effectively putting himself in the shop window.

Certainly Pompey liked what they saw – and in January paid an undisclosed fee to land the then 20-year-old.

He added: ‘I’m a positive thinker and really laid back, so the wait to get a loan move didn’t really weigh on my mind.

‘I believe in being positive in every training session, every match. You just don’t know what can happen.

‘Although if I hadn’t gone out on loan and played those games at Wimbledon, I wouldn’t be at Pompey now. It’s amazing, isn’t it.’