Roy Keane refused to praise Birmingham City goalkeeper Neil Etheridge for his heroics during their FA Cup third round tie with Forest Green Rovers on Tuesday evening.
Birmingham managed to be beat the League Two side 2-1 but came closing to going behind when the score was level at 1-1. However, Etheridge pulled off a superb triple save to keep them in the game.
The 32-year-old tipped a long-range effort onto the bar before getting up and across the goal line to block the follow up shot. Etheridge then managed to punch Forest Green’s third and final attempt away.
Roy Keane refused to praise Birmingham City goalkeeper Neil Etheridge for his FA Cup heroics
The ITV pundit said Etheridge made ‘standard saves’ and insisted it was his ‘job’ to save them
Fans flocked to social media after the game to praise the Birmingham goalkeeper for his heroics. ITV pundit and former footballer Robbie Earnshaw was equally as complimentary about Etheridge after the game.
He said the 32-year-old made a string of ‘great saves’ to keep Birmingham in the game. However, Keane was less impressed with the goalkeeper and simply stated it was his ‘job’ to stop the ball from hitting the net.
He even criticised Etheridge for failing to catch the first attempt on goal before saying they were pretty ‘standard saves’.
Speaking on ITV after the game, Keane said: ‘That’s his job! I think they’re standard saves. I actually think catch the first [shot]. Pretty straightforward. That’s why he’s wearing gloves! That’s his job, honestly it’s pretty straight forward.’
The keeper tipped a long-range effort onto the bar before getting up and across the goal line to block the follow up shot. He then punched Forest Green’s third and final attempt away
This is not the first time Keane has undermined a goalkeeper. He previously spoke about the time he made a fool out of Craig Gordon while managing Sunderland in 2007.
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Keane was unhappy with how the goalkeeper – who he signed from Hearts for £9million – was performing. Therefore, he decided to get between the sticks during training to prove a point.
Recalling the incident, Keane said: ‘I put the gloves on and I said that if they could get the ball past me I’d give them a thousand pounds each but, if they missed, they’d have to give me a hundred.
This is not the first time Keane has undermined a goalkeeper. He previously spoke about the time he made a fool out of Craig Gordon while managing Sunderland in 2007
Keane was unhappy with how the goalkeeper – who he signed from Hearts for £9million – was performing. Therefore, he decided to get between the sticks during training to prove a point
‘Eight or nine players lined up, and I knew that Craig and the other goalkeepers were pissed off with it. They didn’t even look at my goalkeeping skills.
‘They just did their stretches. I tipped a few on to the bar, on to the post, and I kept a clean sheet. I won eight hundred quid off the players – I could have lost eight grand.
‘I was trying to generate a bit of banter, but I’d embarrassed, and maybe belittled, the goalkeepers. I hadn’t meant to.
‘But I didn’t think the keeper should be beaten from 25 or 30 yards. I think I lost Craig for a few weeks, and maybe longer, because of that.’