Speaking in the Pink Un yesterday, Portsmouth player, Jamie Ashdown spoke of his desire to be playing regularly. Something he hasn’t been able to do with Harry Redknapp, having fallen down the pecking order to Dean Kiely and David James. Whereas, at Norwich, he played on the Saturday against Cardiff, having only arrived the previous afternoon.
He was contractually prevented from appearing against Port Vale, where Paul Gallacher put in a star performance, creating a selection headache for Peter Grant ahead of the Stoke game this coming Saturday.
Peter Grant says that this should put a sharpness back into the ‘keepers as competition for selection can only bring out the best in them. There seemed to be little wrong with Ashdown’s performance against Cardiff, but Grant knows that there is even more that Ashdown is capable of. As for Gallacher, he has proved a valuable step-in for Robert Green after his departure to Grant’s old club, West Ham.
It would seem that Ashdown is hoping to join another club, in any case, according to Vital Portsmouth. He was reported as saying there, ‘…The thing is with Pompey, it’s such a good thing to be part of at the moment, with what’s being achieved.
‘But I don’t really feel part of it, which is hard to take, especially as I was playing so much until earlier this year. It’s difficult to let go.’
Norwich has always been fortunate in producing some of the best goalkeepers in the game, going back to the early days of the club, to the likes of Sandy Kennon and Ken Nethercott. Remember it was Nethercott who played for half an hour with a dislocated shoulder? That was in the game against Sheffield United in the 1959 FA Cup quarter final. Then the likes of Kevin Keelan, Chris Woods and Bryan Gunn.
Ashdown and Gallacher are in fine company, good things are surely on the horizon if Ashdown does become a permanent signing.
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