Find Us Keepers
By Chris Leadbeater
The gloves are off for columnist Chris Leadbeater in this issue as he takes a look at some Swans goalkeepers past and present…….
I was first introduced to the Swans by my Grandfather who’d tell me stories of going down the Vetch as a teenager in the late 40’s and seeing players like Blackpool’s Stan Mortensen play, proclaiming him to have been a better player to watch than Stanley Matthews.
Unlike my Grandfather I was more drawn to watching goalkeepers than skilful wingers. For me growing up it was Peter Schmeichel on my wall, followed closely by Big Roger Freestone. being a diminutive 5’8″ I never had a hope of following in their footsteps, peaking with a couple of seasons in the Somerset District Leagues!
Watching Freddie Woodman’s wonder save against Barnsley recently and following his Instagram account, where it’s clear he’s absolutely bought into the spirit of the club and living in the area, it got me thinking of how well we’d done in the GK department over the last 20 years.
Starting with Big Rog of Caerleon and onto Big Willy Gueret from Guadeloupe who saw us into League 1. The first of our double Dutchmen; Dorus de Vries saw us into the Championship and promotion to the Premier League before rejecting a new deal and went to sit on the bench at Wolves…a move that still baffles me today.
Then Michel Vorm arrived, our first Premier League ‘keeper and the man who kept a clean sheet on that famous night at the Mestella in the Europa League. An honourable mention too for our League Cup winning German Gerhard Tremmel. When Vorm moved to Spurs we moved on to the The Pole in our Goal Lukasz Fabianski, a man whose emotion on our lowest day of recent years, the day Premeier League relegation was confirmed, showed just how much this club takes a hold of some players’ hearts.
A season of Mulder and Nordfeldt doing a great job of giving the other the number 1 shirt gave us a season of goalkeeping inconsistency not seen since…I genuinely don’t know when but I’d guess the latter half of the 80’s.
Our current number 1 is the aforementioned young man from Croydon. Boasting an impressive pedigree, Woodman joined us on loan for the 19/20 season and is already closing in on 70 appearances for the Swans, have re-signed for a second loan stint at the start of the 20/21 season. I just hope that Newcastle decide Dubravka, Darlow and Gillespie are enough for 21/22 and he becomes available for us again. I can’t see it myself, I’d field Woodman ahead of those three in a heartbeat.
The transfer window saw Ben Hamer join the club to plug the understudy gap created by an injury to young number 2 Steven Benda, the unfortunate German to set to miss most of the season after injuring an ankle in training. With that scenario in mind, how about a reminder of some of the many squad goalkeepers who’ve filled the bench and training ground over the last 20 or so years?
Roger Freestone’s understudy between 1997 and 2002 was North Walian Jason Jones. It was a thankless task for Jones who spent 5 years at the Swans but was unable to oust the man that made 563 league appearances for City. The next up to attempt displacing a Legend was Pontardawe product Andrew Marsh who joined via Liverpool’s academy but never got past the Swansea bench.
Neil Cutler then joined in March 2003 and this time the understudy became the hero as injury ruled out Rog just when we needed him most, Bryan Flynn’s Swans side fighting to stay in the League. Cutler’s triple save in THAT game against Hull was as important as any of James Thomas’s three goals in the final reckoning. In all Cutler made 13 appearances for the club but declined the opportunity to join on a permanent deal for the 2003-04 campaign.
Next up to don the back up gloves was Irishman Brian Murphy who joined from Manchester City, and he stuck around to become Willy Gueret’s understudy in 2004, ultimately moving on in 2006 and popping up in less savoury parts of South Wales later in his career.
Other names to fill the slot either on loan or permanently include;
- Current Aston Villa goalkeeper coach Andy Oakes
- Former Middlesbrough youngster David Knight
- Greece international Dimi Konstantopoulos who’s apparently still playing in the Northern League at age 42…he also found himself in less savoury parts of South Wales at one point too!
- Local lad David Cornell, now of Ipswich Town
- Current Chelsea academy coach and former DR Congo international Yves Ma-Kalambay was with us for a short period before becoming a personal trainer to the likes of Melanie Sykes
- Even Portugal’s 3rd choice ‘keeper from Euro 2004 Jose Moriera spent a Premier League season in our squad. His sole international cap came in a half hour friendly appearance against Lichtenstein in 2009
Safe to say there’s a few potential pub quiz answers there. David Cornell gets an honourable mention though as had the Waunarlwydd lad been around at a different point in the club’s history he would probably have been pushing to be our first choice goalkeeper.
That’s all in the past; for the present we continue to put our faith, justifiably and deservedly so, in a thoroughly professional young man named Woodman, who it seems would bleed black and white…
