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SwindonCanary

Kevin Keelan

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This was posted on the Bristol City message board when asked ''who was the best keeper you''ve ever seen at Aston Gate ?''
Best

City keeper I seen at Ashton Gate was Kevin Keelan of Norwich City. Remember

once in a top flight game we went 3-0 up after about 15 mins. Keelan then badly

injured his hand, remained in goal and stopped everything thereafter with his

feet. Despite numerous attempts we couldn''t add to the tally and if memory

serves we gave him a standing ovation at the end of the game. Also seen him

perform brilliantly in several games before that.

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For me he is the greatest Canary player ever!

673 appearances will never be beaten - a real legend!

Was our keeper when I first attended Carrow Road in 1969.

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Sometimes he was simply breathtaking and was virtually unbeatable. He could be erratic at other times and had a suspect temperament as several forwards found to their cost, but when he was having "one of those days" he was spectacular almost beyond belief.Nethercott, Gunn and Chris Woods were very very safe and top, top keepers in my opinion but if you never saw KK on one of his spectacular days you really missed something memorable.

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I wonder what they say about him on the Northampton web site! Maybe Mr Apples knows.....

 

In his earlier days when I first went he wasn''t very popular and made lots of silly mistakes whilst also pulling off worldies. But like all keepers he became more consistent as he got older and is definitely the best I''ve ever seen for us and probably for anyone except on tv.

 

 

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What was his best save?  The one I remember above all others was one he made in the semi-final replay against Chelsea at Carrow Rd (the replay after the first one was fogged off). I think it was still 0-0 and a Chelsea player shot from distance and it looked odds on a goal, yet Keelan somehow saved it - couldn''t believe that one at the time.   One of many I know, but that one sticks in my mind.

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[quote user="lake district canary"]What was his best save?  The one I remember above all others was one he made in the semi-final replay against Chelsea at Carrow Rd (the replay after the first one was fogged off). I think it was still 0-0 and a Chelsea player shot from distance and it looked odds on a goal, yet Keelan somehow saved it - couldn''t believe that one at the time.   One of many I know, but that one sticks in my mind.

[/quote]

Blimey !! Thatbwasnexactly the save I was going to pick !! I think the save was from Osgood ,,, but that might have been at the Syamford Bridge tie .

That foggy night in an absolutely crammed full Carrow Road was a really fantastic night for a youngster like I was then :)

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The FA Cup win at Man U will live with me forever. only beaten by the great Denis Law from a ridiculous angle. KK never played a better game, anywhere else he would have had loads of English caps.

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We won''t see his like again. A bit like Darren Huckerby V Cardiff. Only those who were there can possibly know what I mean.

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" That foggy night in an absolutely crammed full Carrow Road was a really fantastic night for a youngster like I was then :) "

That was a great time to be introduced to Norwich football.

Then Keelan did the opposite of great in a game a bit later where he knew the ball would pass by his left hand post, so he wants across the face of the goal, hands in the air "it''s OK lads" kind of gesture, and of course it goes in!

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[quote user="PurpleCanary"]And the best left hook since Jack Dempsey. Sadly I can picture that incident more clearly than any of his stupendous saves.[/quote]As I remember, he didn''t even bother to wait for the ref but walked straight to the tunnel.Certain incidents stay with you all your life and they aren''t always the goals. A bit like the late Ardee and his memory of Bunny Larkins torn shorts. Those who were there will never forget.One I will always treasure is Harry Gregg being covered in snow when Allcocks header hit the bar down at the River End on 3rd Jan 1959.

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It has been said many times that the great Kevin Keelan was eligible to play for England. Can anyone categorically confirm that to be the case and point me to a reputable source? If true, it was a travesty, of course, that he didn''t succeed. I asked because I was always under the impression - in my youth - that his birth in India precluded that. Also, I vaguely recall an incident with Jim McCalliog.  The latter had been hounding Keelan on a few occasions when trying to kick the ball upfield. He was "advised" to stop doing so by the great man. Can anyone add some details to that?

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I remember that he was a brilliant goalkeeper, certainly our best to date, and also a real character. He had a particularly flash way of kicking the ball out from his hands that I remember copying when I went through a time when I played in goal a bit, sad but true.

Whilst I do have a crappy memory of detail going back to when I was a youngster, I do vaguely remember in a match KK clearing the ball out and it hitting big Duncan (or ANO) on the back and then bouncing back past KK and in to the goal or very nearly in to the goal........can anyone else remember this???

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[quote user="M.u.s.t.a.r.d_M.a.t.t.e.r.s"]It has been said many times that the great Kevin Keelan was eligible to play for England. Can anyone categorically confirm that to be the case and point me to a reputable source? If true, it was a travesty, of course, that he didn''t succeed. I asked because I was always under the impression - in my youth - that his birth in India precluded that. Also, I vaguely recall an incident with Jim McCalliog.  The latter had been hounding Keelan on a few occasions when trying to kick the ball upfield. He was "advised" to stop doing so by the great man. Can anyone add some details to that?[/quote]He was British and so eligible for England, despite being born abroad. His father (a soldier I think) was British. Jeremy Goss and David Phillips, to name a couple, were born abroad but eligible for Wales.I think Keelan playing in the second tier didn''t help, but bear in mind Gordon Banks (the best keeper I have seen from anywhere) had a lock on the England position (with Springett and then Bonetti as second choices) and then Shilton and Clemence arrived on the scene. England were much better off for keepers than now.

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The great man himself said "I would have given anything to play for England. Although born in India I have always considered myself English and I would have wanted to represent England. My father''s family was Welsh , so I imagine I could have made out a pretty valid claim to play for Wales. It would have probably been a lot easier to get in the Welsh side but somehow it would have been cheating."

 

One of his proudest moments was in the 1977-78 season when the England manager Ron Greenwood asked him to play in an England XI against West Ham in Trevor Brooking''s testemonial match. Afterwards he asked Greenwood if he could keep the England strip in which he had played. Ron said "yes" and then went and picked out an England tracksuit. "Here" he said, "put that in your kit bag"

 

"I remember that when I got home from West Ham that night I stripped off in front of the bedroom mirror and put it on. Sandy thought I had gone crazy, it was 3am!"

 

From the book Keelan - The Story Of A Goalkeeper. By Philip Webster.

 

 

 

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[quote user="nutty nigel"]

That was my first ever game and also the first ever game on MOTD. Have a look here : -

 

http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/923

 

But don''t watch King Kev too closely throughout[:$]

 

 

[/quote]

Christ, Gary Megson was playing for Wednesday even then....however old was he when we got him...?

I presume it''s his Dad or something...?

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[quote user="nutty nigel"]

That was my first ever game and also the first ever game on MOTD. Have a look here : -

 

http://www.eafa.org.uk/catalogue/923

 

But don''t watch King Kev too closely throughout[:$]

 

 

[/quote]I actually watched that clip a few weeks ago - you may well have posted it. Between the earlier research and the watching of the clip, I had not noted that this was the "McCaliog" match incident to which I referred earlier. Perhaps the memory is playing tricks and the incident wasn''t as significant as I recall. I''ve just watched it again. I do recall it was ''off the ball'' and the cameras may not have picked it up or it was lost in the editing. I had forgotten that Kev was responsible for the second goal. I shall do so again within the hour! I shall put it down to the pitch, a freak wind, a bobble ...............

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It might well have happened but it might not have been on that clip. I wouldn''t remember it. I''d remembered very little having been totally overawed by being in such a crowd. It soon reverted to 11-13,000 which allowed me and the club to truely bond[:)]

 

 

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Thanks for that Nigel.

I''d forgotten about the alphabet in the corner of the Barclay.

It''s great to watch such a long clip of the football at that time.

In my memory the ball didn''t bounce as much as these days, but it seems that it was worse then than now and players were often having a boot sandwich.

Is it just the end-on view, or is it hard to make out much of a formation for either team?

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What I always notice is it seems there was loads of space to play and the pace of the game is nothing like today. But it''s all relative and Wednesday were a top side back then. So probably the grass roots game from back then would look really pedestrian. Tommy Bryceland was at least as good as Wes Hoolahan in my book because a player can only play and be judged in his own time.

 

 

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 or is it hard to make out much of a formation for either team?err, it''s a game of footballnot table football

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Thanks for posting the link.

Its around the time I started to go to the live matches as a kid, although I don''t think I went to this game, but have the programme............it looks more dated than I remember, but I think we have the kit with the black shorts and that''s my favorite and one I would love see make a return. Yes, certainly is not Gery Megson, it''s his dad Don.

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