ON Sunday, September 27 back in the summer of 2015, my club, Armagh Harps, had been drawn against Ballymacnab in the Armagh Senior Football Championship semi-final.

It was as always, a fiercely-contested championship game with a great rivalry between both teams. We eventually won the game on a scoreline of 2-16 to 2- 10, one which looked more comfortable than it actually played out.

The game was played in the Athletic Grounds, in Armagh City, and played at a ferocious pace. The ’Nab created more goal chances than we did that day and would have been kicking themselves afterwards with the ones they missed, enough to have won the game.

Both goals that they did score that day were scored by my old Armagh teammate Gavin McParland, a tenacious footballer who knows exactly where the posts are at any given time. Gavy always loves to collect the ball, turn, and drive straight for the goals. He can score from anywhere inside an opponent’s third of the field and has a very keen eye for scoring goals.

He scored two but also had chances for at least two more, one of which he attempted to play through my legs. But luckily for me I spotted his eyes looking for it and got my legs closed just enough for it to deflect inches wide past the post. He asked if I got a touch on it and then wouldn’t believe me when I admitted I did.

It was my first year with the Armagh senior team and I was one of the older members of the squad straight away. With a limited timeframe to play intercounty football I threw myself into it fully, training hard and looking to improve my ability as much as possible.

This was made much easier with Geezer’s ethos of wanting us to become the best players we could possibly be, and he would also encourage us to push each other as much as possible to do so.

With this in mind, I began to help some of the forwards get into the mindset of a goalkeeper in a bid to help improve their attacking play and more specifically their ruthlessness in front of goal. Essentially, I provided them with information about how goalkeepers play in certain situations and what their decision making would be in these same situations in a bid to give them an advantage over the goalkeeper.

Gavy was one of those forwards. The two goals that Gavy scored that day, as well as one or two more in the league, came as a result of him using the information I shared with him at Armagh. With a wry smile, he told me so after the game and only for a few saves by myself, he would have scored a few more.

It left me feeling disappointed that I had shared the information and made me also feel vulnerable that this info was out there and could be passed on to other teams or players.

What was I going to do now I thought?

The next day I reviewed my performance, as normal, and began thinking of ways to improve my game.

This is when I thought about creating a log of player profiles for future game references.

With Armagh we would get updates on the opposition with details about a player’s kicking foot and playing tendencies.

I began with Gavin, Ballymacnab and his teammates by recording a sort of player/team profile book that would give me a good reference point to know how these players/clubs like to play before we play them. It meant I would have some good information to look at before games to try and aide my performance on the field.

It was updated regularly and especially after we played any of the players/teams already in the book.

The book’s purpose was to try to give me an advantage over the players I would be facing especially when facing them one-on-one in front of goal.

Creating a player and team profile book falls under my 11th Goalkeeping Principle called ‘C.A.N.I. – Constant And Never-ending Improvement’. This principle deals with how a player improves performance off the field of play and a great way for any goalkeeper to gain an advantage over forwards.

If you are looking for that extra one percent to improve your performance, then why not think about creating a log like this one? In it you can record everything that you feel is relevant come game time. Player/team tendencies in various situations, what systems they like to play and how they play them. Player kicking foot, type of player (speedy, tall, strong, etc), scoring record, etc.

The more your record and keep the log up to date, the better an advantage you will create for yourself whenever you play against the players and teams recorded.

It’s time to get started, it’s time to Do Your Homework!

Email: pmgoalkeeping@hotmail.com

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