[Archived] Mark Bunn

[Ricky]

With regards to Ruddy being number 2 keeper, I'd have to say Butland is my favourite to follow Joe Hart to the No. 1 shirt atm.

Fraser Foster may have something to say about that. Looked very good for Celtic in the Champions league.

[Salgado Is A Hero]

Fraser Foster may have something to say about that. Looked very good for Celtic in the Champions league.

He's a very good keeper. Needs to improve on his kicking and a bit on his decision making and he'll be top class.

Forster and Ben Foster are pretty similar to Hart imo.

Hart makes too many mistakes and loves parrying the ball back into his 6 yard box.

[Rovers_Dan]

really like mark bunn!

been pulling off some incredible saves recently. the way he gets to his feet after saving a shot is very quick too

[Andy]

He is a good shot stopper, definitely.

However, his overall game needs a lot of work before he's a proper number 1.

[Kelbo]

Robinson 6'4" - Sandomierski 6'5" - Kean 6'4"

Given 6'1" (just) - Bunn 6' (slightly over)

However just to show height isn't everything - Iker Casillas is a little under 6' and Valdes is a little over 6'

And some may disagree, but Roger Jones, the best keeper I have seen at Rovers, was under 6' I think

[riverside returns]

Kelbo, that is a given about Roger Jones. However, different era and different needs then. They used to wear cotton gloves with a bit of glue on the palm to assist with handling.

[darrenrover]

Kelbo, that is a given about Roger Jones. However, different era and different needs then. They used to wear cotton gloves with a bit of glue on the palm to assist with handling.

In that era gloves were only worn at all when it was wet! Otherwise gobbing on your palm was every bit as good as the latex covered gloves worn today!

I agree Roger Jones was the best Rover between the sticks in the time I have been going. His handling was impeccable, superb reflexes and positional sense, commanded the penalty area, caught crosses 99% of the time and was brave.

All the talk regarding size, are the goals not still 8 yards wide and 8 foot tall? Surely if a keeper can comfortably touch the cross bar he's tall enough?

[dazmaz]

In that era gloves were only worn at all when it was wet! Otherwise gobbing on your palm was every bit as good as the latex covered gloves worn today!

I agree Roger Jones was the best Rover between the sticks in the time I have been going. His handling was impeccable, superb reflexes and positional sense, commanded the penalty area, caught crosses 99% of the time and was brave.

All the talk regarding size, are the goals not still 8 yards wide and 8 foot tall? Surely if a keeper can comfortably touch the cross bar he's tall enough?

24 foot wide, 8 foot high.

Height has nothing to do with ability, sadly many UK football clubs do not look at this and take the tallest they can find.

[darrenrover]

24 foot wide, 8 foot high.

Height has nothing to do with ability, sadly many UK football clubs do not look at this and take the tallest they can find.

Agree totally Baz, IMO it's certainly one aspect of the game where ability has totally gone down the pan in favour of size for some reason.

As good as we all thought Brad was, he was only a modern day Joe Corrigan IMO by comparison with great keepers past.

[thenodrog]

Some people are getting all over misty eyed with nostagia. Brad Freidal is the best that I have seen in 50 years of going to Ewood. In fact he is comfortably in my best ever top 10 keepers.

[Andy]

Some people are getting all over misty eyed with nostagia. Brad Freidal is the best that I have seen in 50 years of going to Ewood. In fact he is comfortably in my best ever top 10 keepers.

Agree with this.

And it's worth considering that the quality, speed and accuracy of today's game (as well as things like new ball dynamics) makes goalkeeping far harder now than it was 'back in th'old days'.

Brad is comfortably the best GK we've had at Rovers.

He was consistently outstanding in the top division, against some of the best attackers in the world.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Some people are getting all over misty eyed with nostagia. Brad Freidal is the best that I have seen in 50 years of going to Ewood. In fact he is comfortably in my best ever top 10 keepers.

Me too. Brad was head and shoulders above the rest. Roger Jones ? Come on guys, he wasn't any better than Jim Arnold or Terry Gennoe.

[darrenrover]

its refreshing that we can all have opinions without being pilloried by others.

Taking nothing away from Brad because he was a true great, i stand by my original opinion with regards to Roger Jones.

Not least, being a keeper myself, he was my inspiration.

I see goalkeeping these days as it was trying to save the 'fly away balls' we sometimes had to play with as kids in the seventies and bloody hated. You'd hit the bugger to the left and with a mind of its own it would finish to the right.

i guess no wonder you never see a keeper catch a ball these days!

ps Jim Arnold, Terry Gennoe, Adam Blacklaw, Fred Else, Uggy Bradshaw, Tim Flowers et al couldnt come close. As for Mark Bun.......

[jim mk2]

Never understood why a bigger club didn't come in for Roger Jones - after all, we were a struggling third division club most of the time he was with us. Perhaps he wasn't quite as good as we thought.

Fred Else probably wouldn't be a professional these days - only about 5ft 9in if I remember. Good keeper though.

Bradshaw was the most naturally talented but was only at the club a short while and never developed into the keeper should have become

Order of ability and preference: Friedel, Flowers, Jones. The rest were on about the same level.

[darrenrover]

Never understood why a bigger club didn't come in for Roger Jones - after all, we were a struggling third division club most of the time he was with us. Perhaps he wasn't quite as good as we thought.

Fred Else probably wouldn't be a professional these days - only about 5ft 9in if I remember. Good keeper though.

Bradshaw was the most naturally talented but was only at the club a short while and never developed into the keeper should have become

Order of ability and preference: Friedel, Flowers, Jones. The rest were on about the same level.

Jim removing the misty, nostalgic goggles I'd probably agree with your order of preference. Even at the time, I'd have let Flowers go to Newcastle and kept Given and said so.

Regarding Bradshaw, I think his failing can be summed up by the fact that he had L and R on his boots to make sure they were on the right feet!

[chris_h]

Never understood why a bigger club didn't come in for Roger Jones - after all, we were a struggling third division club most of the time he was with us. Perhaps he wasn't quite as good as we thought.

Fred Else probably wouldn't be a professional these days - only about 5ft 9in if I remember. Good keeper though.

Bradshaw was the most naturally talented but was only at the club a short while and never developed into the keeper should have become

Order of ability and preference: Friedel, Flowers, Jones. The rest were on about the same level.

No Jim Arnold? Cracking keeper imo.

Should be a mention in despatches for the ever reliable Terry Gennoe too.

[Joar]

I think some people are overestimating height for goalkeepers. Sure being tall is a big advantage, but there are quite a few shortish goalies that did allright for themselves.

Angelo Peruzzi and was under 6 feet I think (still is presumably ). Jorge Campos is 5'6'', although you could argue he wasn't the best out there, he still got 130 caps. He might not be world class, but Vincent Enyeama might win the African Cup of Nations this year. René Higuita was 5'9'', and at least he was famous.

I do believe though that there is a real bias already at youth levels for height being important both for goalkeepers and central defenders, this does mean that if you want to become a top player in these positions you have to work extra hard to get there if you're shorter. Also you need to counter your height disadvantage by better anticipation, better agility etc.

But then again, what we percieve as a 'short' goalkeeper is different from what we think of as a short outfield player. I used to admire Peruzzi more because I thought he was short, took me ages to realise he's pretty much my height, and bang on the average height of norwegian males (that average might have changed since then), and quite possibly above average for an italian male. [Mark Bunn is taller than him btw (not nearly as good, but still)]