Blimey! Shilts going through the motions? He was a workaholic, an outstanding pro who kept us up one year and then in 83/84 took us to second in the league and cup semi-final. Didn't we win 7 games at home 1 nil all in a row? Niemi was excellent but Shilton was fantastic for us.
Yes if we had managed to keep Keegan that year we would have won the sodding thing. Great times though and they are coming back!
He worked hard in training very true, he more or less wrote the training manual that modern keepers follow. He was the first keeper I can remember shouting at defenders and dominating his area. However, he always looked invincible at Forest. The Saints forwards at that time never seemed to believe they could score passed him. I never felt he had that same authority with us. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying he was poor for us, far from it. I just think that if you look at performances with Saints and try not to look their careers as a whole, then Niemi was better. Its hard to judge goalkeepers sometimes. They are the ones who get the praise if no goals are conceded but often that has much more to do with how the rest of the team are playing. I have the same opinion about Keegan, in that he had the odd blinding game for us but overall wasn't that brilliant. He was injured quite a lot if I remember correctly. Its no coincidence that we were a better team the year after he left. One thing I do agree with though, they were great times and they are on there way back. During the season we came 2nd, it was a very hardworking team: Peter Shilton Reuben Agboola Steve Baker Mark Dennis Mick Mills Mark Wright Ivan Golac David Armstrong Nick Holmes Steve Williams Steve Moran Danny Wallace David Puckett I think thats about right for the majority of games.
Maybe a bit of historical rose tinted glasses here!? 14 goals in 100 games, not the greatest ratio. However, he scored last year for Lymington aged 51!
