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Opinion

Exceptional start to the season for ex-Newcastle United keeper – Zero goals conceded for Freddie Woodman

2 years ago
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Freddie Woodman approached the 2021-22 season with the best season of his fledgling career under his belt.

The talented goalkeeper had spent the previous two seasons on loan at Championship side Swansea City, with his path to the Newcastle United first team blocked by Martin Dubravka and Karl Darlow.

The experience had been vital with Woodman playing 95 first team games during his time in Wales, winning the golden glove in his second season and reaching the play-offs in both seasons, losing to Brentford in the 2019/20 semis and then to the same club in the 2020/21 play-off final.

Despite this excellent form, a first team place at Newcastle United still seemed a long way off for Freddie Woodman, who was expected to spend another season on loan in the Championship, and he was heavily linked with Bournemouth, who were preparing for another season in the second tier under the management of former Newcastle midfielder Scott Parker.

However, an injury to Martin Dubravka combined with Karl Darlow suffering due to the effects of Covid-19, suddenly thrust Woodman into the spotlight and from the brink of another loan move to the Championship, he found himself preparing to make his long-awaited Premier League debut at St James’ Park against West Ham United.

Although Newcastle lost their opening fixture, Freddie Woodman emerged with some credit, saving a penalty which was eventually turned in, as well as making a number of other saves. Woodman then played in a further two league fixtures, as well as a defeat to Leicester City in the League Cup, before the team’s fourth league game of the season saw them head to Old Trafford to face the returning Cristiano Ronaldo.

It would be a fair assessment to say that Woodman had a poor game, wrong footed by a slight deflection to spill a tame shot, allowing Ronaldo to slot home and then being beaten through his legs for Ronaldo’s second of the game. With Darlow fit once more and Woodman picking up a hip injury, he wouldn’t feature in the first team again.

He would eventually make the long awaited move to Bournemouth in the January 2022 transfer window, but things wouldn’t get much better for Woodman on the south-coast, making just one appearance in the FA Cup and warming the bench for the rest of the season as Scott Parker’s side finished in second place to achieve automatic promotion.

So Woodman returned to Newcastle once more, but with the club’s intention to add another goalkeeper to the ranks, eventually securing the signature of Nick Pope, it seemed inevitable that Freddie Woodman would leave the club again, the only question being whether it would be another loan deal or a permanent transfer. It would eventually turn out to be the latter, with Woodman joining Preston North End on a three year contract.

Just as he did in his previous loan spells, Woodman has thrived in the second tier so far, keeping clean sheets in all four of Preston’s Championship fixtures. While it would be far too early to say that Woodman will be a player we’ll look back on in the future as one that got away, particularly given the current strength of our goalkeeping department, it is a huge shame that a player who had been at the club since he was 14 years old, and is clearly a very talented goalkeeper, never got a proper opportunity to show what he was capable of.

For Woodman, it may well be a case of the right player at the wrong time. Goalkeeper has always been a position where we have been strong and it was also unfortunate for him that he got an opportunity at a time when the side was really struggling under the previous regime.

While we won’t see Freddie Woodman in a Newcastle shirt in the Premier League again, I fully expect to see him back in the Premier League with another club in the next few years.

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