Our Goalkeepers

By Cian Duffy
September 27 2002

Just a short article hastily shoved together to keep the site alive... part 1 of a feature series on the players for the different areas of the field. Next whenever, Defenders

Ireland currently have three goalkeepers with caps, be they full or partial. Of course, we have Newcastle #1 Shay Given as our normal first choice for goalkeeper.

Basically the replacement for Packie Bonner, Given, also from Donegal, has achieved 45 caps since 1996. At 26, Given is the youngest of the goalkeepers previously used by McCarthy.

In 2nd place in the caps list, and also second youngesty goalkeeper, there is Dean Kiely. The Charlton player has achieved 7 caps for his country, and holds some of the best statistics for a pre,miership goalie, saving more goals than any other. He has taken Alan Kelly's place as Givens substitute.

Finally, we have 32 year Nick Colgan. The Hibernians goalkeeper has only one cap, from a substitution during the Denmark freindly mathc prior to the World Cup. He is unlilkely top pick up many more cpas, as he is older than the other choices, but