Keeper coach Dan Watson admitted that he was a ‘very happy coach’ following the capture of Adam Collin this morning as the signing of the experienced stopper left him with what he described as two excellent keepers to work with.
“I’m very happy with where we are,” he said. “It’s good to get Adam [Collin] over the line because it means we’ve now got a very strong goalkeeping department.
“As I said earlier, I’ve seen the bonding start and the high fives are going, and things like that. It’s just great for me to be working with two very, very good keepers.
“I’ve been speaking to Adam all the way through close season, just to touch base – would I have thought we’d get him? Being honest, no, and that’s why I’m so pleased that he’s here.”
“Having these two lads is going to give us a solid base to build from,” he continued. “They’re both very reliable keepers and it’s great to know that, whoever is picked, they’ll be there to do the job.”
With the competition for the starting place expected to be intense, the coach agreed that this particular selection problem was a nice one for the manager to have.
“It’s very rare that you’ll get two keepers as good as these two are in the same team,” he explained. “We’ve got that here now and it’s fantastic for the club to be in this position.
“The way I do things is that I set boundaries so that whoever isn’t playing, although disappointed, is going to do everything he can to get the shirt.
“However, he has to show me that he’s also going to fully support the other keeper who has been given the starting place. It’s healthy competition, it has to be that way, and in some ways it can be ruthless.
“I want them coming into work from Monday to Friday ready to drive on, whether they’ve been in the team at the weekend or not. My job is to make sure I’m pushing them so that they’re giving me everything they’ve got all the time.”
The other big keeper news at the moments was the heroics performed by former-Carlisle loanee Jordan Pickford as he wrote himself into the history books with a superb penalty save to help the national side through to the quarter finals of the World Cup.
“It’s brilliant to see something like that,” he said. “There are a lot of keeper haters out there who say it’s our fault if we don’t do this, that or the other.
“Jordan made a great penalty save, which helped his team get to the quarter finals, so what more can you say. Every keeper in the country will have been willing him on to do something like that and hopefully the team will build on it and go all the way in the competition.”
Click HERE to watch an interview with Dan Watson on iFollow United now.
Click HERE to see a clip from this interview on our YouTube channel. Follow the same link for more FREE content right from the heart of the club.