It’s better to be lucky than good so they say

But Nick Townsend keeping a clean sheet today was more luck than talent.

His distribution is excellent - well compared to Davies anyway - but as a goalkeeper he worries me. A lot.

In 60 seconds he could have given the game back to Birmingham single handedly today. He got away with it.

Davies’ mistakes have been plentiful, but they pretty much have all led to goals, as for goalkeepers they often do.

I think it unfair to not point out the fact that the very same errors could and probably should have led to goals conceded. We can’t be blind to the limitations of Townsend just because Davies lost all form and confidence.

I still think long term Davies is much better. Whether he’s ready to be brought back in yet I don’t know.

 

He worries me no more than the other one.

 

He's only in the starting 11 because Davies has been consistently making mistakes and costing us goals all season. Ideally we would have brought another keeper in Jan but Oxford tried to hold us to ransom with Eastwood. The no1 spot is Townsends untill otherwise then Davies might be able to get his place back.

 

Made a good double save at nil nil, but worries me there’s a clanger coming!

Let’s face it though if Davies was better he wouldn’t be playing for us and if Townsend was better he wouldn’t have been sitting on the bench for 2 years

 

Good points -

He made an excellent double save at 0-0 as noted above, made a good save from a cross/shot in the second half, communicated well with his back four, released the ball quickly where necessary and generally distributed the ball well.

Bad points -

Pushed the ball back into the danger zone which resulted in Roberts hitting the back of the net. Obviously I’m not an expert but one would expect a keeper to be pushing the initial shot out wide or behind for a corner.

Then there was the mad minute that was just insane.

Summary -

Taken his chance well despite riding his luck at times, kept a clean sheet and it’s very much his jersey to lose now.

 

I still think Davies is an excellent keeper but has just had a poor few months. A spell out of the side will do him no end of good in June opinion and he'll come back stronger hopefully; he’s still young for a keeper. As for Townsend, he just needs to keep working hard and who knows, if he does well he could earn himself a new contract come the end of the season