SOCCER: EMMET MALONEtalks to the new Ireland number one goalkeeper about his long route to the top of his profession
LIKE SHAY Given, Keiren Westwood once found himself surplus to requirements at Manchester City. While the Donegalman had his pick of alternatives when things didn’t work out, however, the 27-year-old’s departure came close to marking the end of his career in the professional game. As it turns out, it was just the start of one of the game’s more roundabout journeys to being an international number one.
That voyage ended on Wednesday night in Belgrade where the Sunderland player marked his first appearance as an Ireland’s manager first choice with a confident performance that included one really outstanding save and ended in a clean sheet.
It wasn’t the first time he had impressed for his country; his display in the home win over Macedonia last year marked him out as having both the talent and temperament to cope at this level, but he was no longer a stopgap and Giovanni Trapattoni’s relief that he had come through the test so well was obvious afterwards.
It is all a remarkable achievement for a player who, the story goes, was at home in his mother’s house actually filling out an application form for the police service when the phone rang with the offer of a trial at Carlisle United; a club then languishing in the glamorous world of the Conference. That was in 2004 and in the eight years since Westwood’s trajectory has been relentlessly upwards with the goalkeeper having now played in every division of the English league.
His confidence steadily grew to the point where, when Coventry City consigned him to the reserves for a spell because he wouldn’t sign a new deal a couple of season’s back, he called the then Championship outfit’s bluff and was quickly restored to see out what remained of his deal in the first team. He then looked to have cracked the top flight over the first half of last season only to fall ill just after Christmas and lose his place to Simon Mignolet.
The Belgian made the most of his chance and it would have been desperately hard for Martin O’Neill to replace him given his form over the months that followed. Westwood reacted well; keeping his head down, his work-rate up and resolving, when the breakthrough failed to come before the summer, to return and redouble his efforts after the close season. Sure enough, he was back at the club ahead of schedule in order to renew his assault on the first team.
He spoke a few months ago about his concern that the lack of first-team action at the Stadium of Light might cost him his place at Euro 2012 and while the idea always seemed a little far fetched, it is funny the way things have worked out.
Given’s departure has handed him the title of Irish number one and that now is likely to confer a status that might help him a little in the campaign to displace his Belgian rival.
It is, in any case, unlikely to do him any harm, something he was clearly aware of as he headed back to England.
“Yeah I did well and it’s good to keep a clean sheet,” he said, “but obviously it’s the whole team who defends from the front and we kept our shape throughout with plenty of talking among the lads at the back. We deserved the 0-0.
“I’ve been in the squad four years now and I have been working up until this moment. Shay is a good friend and a great goalkeeper and it’s a shame (he has gone now) as I would like to see him play one more game and get the adulation he deserves.
“He has done 16 years of hard, hard work and deserves every bit of praise he gets. He is one of my heroes and idols and I cannot speak any more highly of him.”
With the Aston Villa player gone, though, Westwood is aiming to help Ireland to a strong start in its World Cup campaign and, he hopes, persuade O’Neill he is worth his place.
“Kazakhstan is a long way away,” he says. “But we will be going there looking to win as we are a strong outfit and we should be looking for the three points.”
As for starting Sunderland’s opening Premier League game away to Arsenal, he adds, “I don’t know, you would have to ask the gaffer. He doesn’t name his team until two on the Saturday so I will be waiting until then. Hopefully I get the nod.”
If the breakthrough doesn’t come Westwood will have to decide whether to go elsewhere in search of first-team football, something Trapattoni has said is a necessity which he, in turn, acknowledges is “a given”.
He is not about to start dishing out ultimatums at this stage. The season is about to start and he goes into it already on a high. The idea that he once came close to becoming a policeman must seem stranger than ever to Ireland’s international goalkeeper.
