Pickford hunts clean-sheet record in his ‘magic’ shirt
7.45PM, ITV
JORDAN PICKFORD believes the England goalkeeper’s jersey is ‘magic’, even if he may not always feel the same about his Everton attire.
The 26-year-old surpassed Gordon Banks’ record of 720 minutes without conceding a goal for his country during the European Championship, extending that to 725, while conceding just two goals all tournament, one a sensational free-kick from Denmark’s Mikkel Damsgaard in the semi-finals.
Pickford also capped a fine individual summer performance by saving from Andrea Belotti and Chelsea’s regular penalty-taker Jorginho during the shoot-out as his side lost the final 3-2 to Italy on spot-kicks.
But it has not always been a similar story at his club, where last season Pickford was occasionally replaced by then-manager Carlo Ancelotti with Sweden goalkeeper Robin Olsen.
Pickford admits international football seems to bring something special out of him. ‘As a kid you always dream of pulling the England shirt on. I hold my hand up, for Everton in the past maybe I’ve made a few errors but you can only learn from them really and that’s what I’m doing,’ he said.
‘For England, I’m just the same person, giving my all, all the time. It’s definitely a magic shirt!’
Pickford continues to draw criticism from pundits but says he has got used to trying to block out any negativity as he has matured. Keeping a clean sheet in Poland Pola tonight will set a new record reco of 12 in a calendar year for England, En beating the 11 set back in the seminal year of 1966.
‘It’s noise and I feel like I’ve got my job to do, they’ve got theirs to do,’ he added.
‘I’m keeping clean sheets and for me it’s about performing and not getting distracted by any of that. I’m focused on what the job in hand is.’