Sideways Sammy

The move to bring in a new goalkeeper over the summer felt like a conspicuous move to cover for the possibility of Ben Wilson’s form last season not being sustainable. Brad Collins has had to bide his time for an opportunity to get past Wilson into the Coventry City starting line-up, but his inclusion has been one of several factors that have coincided with the Sky Blues rising up the league table. The former Barnsley man has been aided by the team’s overall defensive improvement over the past couple of months, but Collins’ ability to play out from the back and his all-round composure as a goalkeeper has been apparent in his early appearances for the club.

Like Ben Wilson last season, Brad Collins has been helped by coming into the team at a time when the performances of the players in front of him have improved. Whether the aura of calmness he currently seems to provide is down to coincidence or his own qualities can only be proved when faced with a wider array of challenges than he’s currently faced. What can be said is that Collins has improved the team’s ability to play out from the back, less so in terms of pinging long, accurate passes to start attacks and more in terms of being able to receive the ball in tight areas to navigate the opposition press and keep play ticking over. The pre-existing relationship Collins had with Bobby Thomas and Liam Kitching in front of him has helped form an effective unit between goalkeeper and centre-back both in possession and in terms of managing games when out of it. Where there appears to be scope for improvement is in saving shots more cleanly, where Collins seems to prefer parrying over catching the ball, which feels like it will cost the team goals somewhere down the line.

For a goalkeeper, ten games really are too few to judge them given the number of factors in matches they are not in control of that will affect the perception of their performance levels. While it feels as if Brad Collins’ presence between the sticks has been one of the several areas of improvement that has lifted the team, more evidence is required to prove whether that has been the case. Collins is by no means a perfect goalkeeper, but he has helped form a unit between himself and the centre-backs in front of him that is working. For the time being, there looks to be no need to change anything about that.