Sideways Sammy

Brad Collins

Appearances: 31, Minutes Played: 3,135, Goals Conceded: 40, Clean Sheets: 8

After dropping a couple of clangers towards the end of the campaign, the perception around Brad Collins has changed from him being a sturdy, dependable goalkeeper to someone who absolutely has to be replaced. Taking those recent mistakes out of the equation, it’s been a solid campaign from Collins, who looked an immediate improvement on Ben Wilson when he came into the team and can point to a handful of games where his shot-stopping has helped win the team points. The issue is that he hasn’t produced big performances often enough to project a sense of authority about his presence in goal.

Aside from that initial run in the side in November-December, Brad Collins has been part of a defence that continuously leaked soft goals and has to bear some of the responsibility for that. While he is a decent enough goalkeeper in almost every aspect of his game, there’s nothing Brad Collins has really stood out for providing, apart from maybe his short distribution. Collins could do with being more commanding to help project some authority in the back-line, but his tendency to punch and parry anything in his six-yard area suggests that is not his strength as a goalkeeper. As much as Coventry City probably could get away with Collins remaining number one next season, if there is a better option out there, it may be worth exploring.

Ben Wilson

Appearances: 22, Minutes Played: 2,199, Goals Conceded: 30, Clean Sheets: 5, Goals: 0

Ben Wilson went from the Championship Golden Glove to second-choice in a relatively short time-span this season. While that may seem harsh, Wilson never quite escaped the sense that he had been carried to all those clean sheets last year on the shoulders of an excellent defensive set-up in front of him. It’s hard to point to too many clangers that Wilson dropped, like Brad Collins, he struggled to project a sense of authority and lost out to his team-mate due to his lack of confidence with the ball at his feet.

Whether Ben Wilson stays for the coming season will depend on how keen the club are to recruit a new goalkeeper to challenge or supersede Brad Collins’ place in goal. Wilson has shown over the five seasons he’s been at the club, that he’s perfectly capable of stepping in for a handful of games and can even look very good with the right defensive set-up around him. The issue Wilson faced this season was that the current defensive set-up was not suited to his qualities as a goal-line, shot-stopper who isn’t a great passer of the ball, it’s a set-up looks unlikely to change.