Battle of the keepers key to forward march

ALEX DICKEN probes Beadle and Allsop's records in goal

- 

IN our first meeting with Chris Davies almost two years ago, sitting in his office at the club’s training ground in Henley-in-Arden, he made it clear what he expected from a Birmingham City goalkeeper.

The club had recently acquired Ryan Allsop, a goalkeeper with exceptional ball-playing skills who had caught the eye of Blues fans a few months prior while in Hull City colours and the question related to his ability with the ball at his feet.

Davies flipped the question: “Ryan is a very good goalkeeper with his hands first and foremost and that’s his fundamental.”

The Blues manager has been consistent throughout his tenure that a goalkeeper must be good with his hands first, the rest is secondary.

And that is why Allsop, who won League One's Golden Glove award last season for the goalkeeper with the most clean sheets, has been forced to play second fiddle to James Beadle this term.

Allsop is clearly better with the ball at his feet, but the numbers don’t lie when it comes to what they do with their hands.

Beadle has conceded 33 goals in his 27 Championship starts, averaging 1.22 goals conceded per 90 minutes, compared with Allsop’s 15 in 11 matches (1.36 per 90).

Allsop has only faced 33 shots on target, saving 19, for a save percentage of 57.6 percent, whereas Beadle has made 69 saves from the 101 shots on his goal for 67.3 percent.

To put that into context, there are 10 goalkeepers in the Championship who boast a save percentage of more than 70 per cent according to FBREF.

Beadle might be significantly better than Allsop in this statistic, but he is middle of the road league-wide.