Darren’s playing for keeps at West Ham

ONE of the major reasons why Manchester United didn’t win comfortably last weekend was the performance of Republic of Ireland number one Darren Randolph.

The West Ham keeper made several key saves in the game to earn the Hammers a point at Old Trafford, two from Marcus Rashford and Zlatan Ibrahimovic standing out.

The best news for Ireland and Martin O’Neill was when Slaven Bilic ‘dropped’ Randolph for the EFL Cup game a few days later. That was the sign that Randolph is West Ham’s number one. And richly deserved it is too.

He showed his Premier League and Ireland credentials a few years ago when he was at Birmingham City. He certainly impressed me in the games I saw, and he really earned his move to the Premier League when it came. But he has had to be patient. Adrián has been the first choice keeper until this season but he makes mistakes and Randolph has deserved his chance. He commands his area, his kicking has always been excellent, and as he showed at Old Trafford, he is a very good shot stopper. I know Shay Given really rates him.

It’s a while since we’ve had a top-flight number one and hopefully he will get a run in the Premier League. Apart from Rob Elliot standing in for Tim Krul at Newcastle last season, it has been a long time since an Ireland keeper has done that. Here’s hoping he avoids injury between now and the qualifier in March.