swinging the lead
#5 Gold Rushworth
by chris leadbeater
Goalie Carl Rushworth has been good as gold so far this season. In fact, former Copper-cum-Columnist Chris Leadbeater thinks the loan star is a real keeper! Maybe we could get Chris to break out his old handcuffs and secure Rushworth to the goalpost at the end of the season to stop him going back to Brighton? There again, who knows what lurid Leadbeater has been using those cuffs for since his retirement?? Ychyfi!!
Another season, another transfer window and another tranche of loan players to the dot.com to give us a squad to work with over 46 league games and the rest. We’ve had our fair share over the years and every year there’s usually one that captures the hearts of the supporters, however hard we try not to fall for them.
To be fair to the club, Freddy Woodman aside, Goalkeeper isn’t really a position we’ve sought to fill with loans very often and even then its been more on an emergency basis. Dimi Konstantopoulos being the last one other than Woodman to feature in the league for us with four appearances in November 2008 covering for an injured Dorus De Vries.
The previous one before Dimi was some guy from Chelsea back in 1989/90, I wonder what happened to him?! Woodman spent two seasons here which is longer than some permanent signings stay at clubs, the lad from Chelsea stuck around for a while too. Goalkeeper isn’t usually a position we try to stick with a plaster.
So what of Carl Rushworth then?
I’ll be honest, he wasn’t a player that was anywhere near my radar this time last year. Other than those in the England squad (or Scott Carson), its not often that English goalkeepers are talked about in the Premier League and when they are, it doesn’t seem long before they’re replaced by someone from abroad in the starting line up and are only kept around to fill a slot in the squad for registration rules (Scott Carson).
Brighton’s senior goalkeeping stock wasn’t exactly inspiring. They’d just sold Robert Sanchez to Chelsea, had Jason Steele who seems to have been around for years and never hit his potential and then spent £15m on a 20yr old from Anderlecht. Sending a 21/22 year old keeper with just 1 England U21 cap out to us on loan didn’t really fill me with much expectation and left me a bit worried for our Number 1 shirt. Surely if he was decent, they’d have kept him?
Well, I’m glad they sent him our way for the season. Rushworth has been a shining light in an otherwise pretty dark season. 5 Clean sheets in 30 matches doesn’t sound a lot but when we’re sitting 17th in the league, those 5 clean sheets are at least a point gained and its currently 5 points separating us from the relegation zone.
A key stat is a 71.7% save rate. When compared to the other goalkeepers in the league who’ve played every match for their team, Rushworth is only bettered for saves made by Max O’Leary at Bristol City and they’ve conceded 14 goals less than us. In fact Bristol City’s defence is the 6th tightest in the league, ours is the 5th leakiest.
A Goalkeeper’s effectiveness can’t just be measured on stats though. A solid goalkeeper inspires a defence and sets the base for how effective the whole team is in the defensive third of the pitch.
Our defence is shaky at best and I’m careful to use an FA Cup match away to Bournemouth as a full point of reference, but we look a lot less shaky with Rushworth behind them.
At 6ft 2 he’s not the tallest of keepers but he’s imposing nonetheless. He’s without doubt one of the first names on the team sheet; I don’t know whether Luke Williams fills in his GK first or his captain but he’s going to be first or second.
With Brighton seemingly having him under contract until 2027 and with the likes of Barcelona and Man United having apparently watched him in previous years, I won’t hold out hope of him being at Swansea for 2024/25.
I’d definitely put a sneaky fiver on him being in England’s squad for Euro 2028 though, especially if he can go on to secure the No1 shirt at Brighton.
I won't go so far as to say ahead of ramsdale or pickford, but definitely on the plane.
