SHILTON AND CLEMENCE JUST TOOK IT IN TURNS!
With Gareth Southgate set to decide on his No 1 goalkeeper, Sportsmail recalls how Ron Greenwood solved his dilemma ...
Gareth Southgate’S dilemma over which of his three goalkeepers he should select for the games against Malta and Slovakia has echoes of the past.
his predecessor of 40 years ago, ron greenwood, had a similar problem with his three firstchoice keepers in the late Seventies, though there the comparison ends.
Southgate’s selection wrestle with Joe hart, Jack Butland and tom heaton is between three keepers who are competent but hardly great.
greenwood, on the other hand, had three, two of whom, Peter Shilton and ray Clemence, were great and a third in Joe Corrigan who would quite comfortably have been the best by today’s standards.
the choice greenwood made was to alternate between Shilton and Clemence, who had followed a production line of top english goalkeepers in Frank Swift, ron Springett and gordon Banks.
throughout the late Seventies, Shilton and Clemence took it in turns, with greenwood wanting to keep both happy and hoping one of them would eventually emerge to take the position permanently.
ultimately he chose Shilton, who went on to play 125 times for england, to Clemence’s 61.
the irony was that they had such different styles of keeping. Liverpool’s Clemence played as an extra defender, wonderful at judging crosses and coming off his line, a taller and more lithe figure than the stockier Shilts.
he also had the advantage of playing behind a wonderful Liverpool defence and spent many games with little to do, which no doubt encouraged his off-the-line forays.
Shilton, on the other hand, was more of a balanced keeper, who claims he learned much of his agility from a former ballroom dancer, Len heppell.
he told an Fa goalkeeping conference last year that heppell had written to him out of the blue, offering help, and Don revie, greenwood’s predecessor, introduced him into his backroom staff.
‘he changed my attitude towards goalkeeping because he was very much about body movements and positions in terms of how you get best balanced,’ he told the delegates. ‘It helped me greatly because I tended to be a bit upright and my hands were too rigid. he told me to feel as though I was in water and get looser and have my knees bent and my head forward.’
although there is only a year’s difference in their ages (Shilton is younger) it was Shilton who Sir alf ramseynational side first against introducedeast germanyinto the in November 1970 in a team that included four of england’s 1966 World Cup-winning side.
the two vied for the No 1 shirt for the following decade, though for a spell under revie, Clemence was the preferred choice.
these were the days before the recognised goalkeeping coaches who proliferate in the modern game. It was these two fine keepers who often worked on their own, the competition for the place their great incentive.
though they shared a closeness off the field as a result of their bond from the ‘ goalkeepers’ union’, the rivalry in training was there to see, with the intensity of their workouts extraordinary.
they were the first in their specialist role to train alone, helping and encouraging each other. until then keepers had trained with the rest of the team, hardly bothering with specialist training. Shilton in particular was very self- critical, always searching for improvement and introducing new areas and techniques, which explains why he played for his country at 40. they did have the benefit of a specialist coach at the 1982 World Cup in Spain, technically working under greenwood’s coach Don howe, but when the tournament started the manager made his decision in favour of Shilton. Clemence was to play only twice more for england but he had by then cemented a partnership with Shilton that will probably never be surpassed.