Ian Scanlon, the oft under appreciated and represented (in my opinion at least), starting goalkeeper for the North London premier league side, is one seemingly outside of the England coaching radar. Having been at the club since his university days [Edit: An interesting tidbit though about Ian Scanlon is that he has scored
roughly 130 goals for LSE (London School of Economics) whilst at uni
there and can drag flick pretty well; have faced it when doing a bit of warming up, plus the choice of uni
means he's a smart one as they say!], having been at Brooklands MU before that, and being around the squad when Welsh goalkeeper was there, having the chance to develop quickly early on and mentored by Lee Ible who was first choice at the time (and is now at Oxton and still involved in the Welsh international set-up).
He is also starting to get places now that age and maturity is quicking in, over and above what you was able to achieve stepping straight into the premier league at the age of 19. In the follow-up clash this season past he kept East Grinstead to a single goal which is an achievements in itself, a reflection of how far he has come from those babysteps. Asserting this in his play and self confidence, his is often dominant at corners (an incredibly cruicial part of the game at this elite level) and strong out to challenge against free balls. Prefering to play without arm guards, he has lightning quick reflexes and strong self confidence, very important for competing at this level accountability wise. Also notable is the fact that he has taken Hampstead on long cup runs for three seasons in a row (or more, can't remember!), and they even managed to turn over Beeston, their bogeyman opponent this past season, falling at the final hurdle to Surbiton though.
On the flip side though, he does falter in his consistency at times, in terms of sometimes being amazing, sometimes not "turning up to the game" with that same fiery desire to win, where playing all out every game would be better than losing track, which is where the criticism comes from, from those that voice it. One key problem though is his self doubt and hesitation, especially against drag flicks, which seems to be his Achilles heel. Over thinking where he would be better off reacting out of instinct subconsciously, he is often giving away unfortunate cheap goals by over commiting and ending up unbalanced and in the wrong direction, unable to shift back across to make that all important save.
But for me, he is still a solid choice when "on his game". Even the world's best struggle with consistency, like Cortes has; great at the HIL and international games, then tails and sometimes Ian plays running boiling like a lost person in the Arizona desert, then lukewarm and cold. Even though some see his performances as sub-par, he has kept Hampstead out of the relegation zone and away from the danger of losing that important and hard earned status, year after year, for four seasons now (and many believed they wouldn't be capable of staying there), and seeing as they are always bombarded (for some reason it's a lost , but important for discussion), I even might dare to say that Scanners is often let down by HWHC, especially in the runaway demolition away against East Grinstead where the opponents were let loose and were just free scoring and free to do as they pleased. Sometimes I feel that he has the most work of any of the national league goalkeepers, but without a scoring stats system like in ice hockey, there is no quantified.
For me, personally, I wonder if he had a permanent goalie coach and competitor to keep on task; as humans we need accountability and target setting and review and feedback to make sure we are always improving. Having trained with him when he was preparing for the Junior World Cup in Malaysia, I have seen his level of commitment, desire and hard work, but it seems like it's not being pushed to its optimum best. But without regular goalie specific related analysis week in week out, his form seems to drop and wobble in comparison to the breakout season he had at the spritely age of 21 when he fought out Mat Simkins for the starting role. He performed well in a squad that was all over the place, in the U21's tournament and kept them in games where they shouldn't have been so, so I don't know why on earth he was dropped, and I was surprised to see Bailey thrown to the wolves where he was embarassed and outplayed, as demonstrated below (not fair or easy on a young 17 year old struggling with drag flicks at the time):
'Scanners' looking pretty imposing and annoyed at that very same EG game after letting in the only game post penalty corner!
His stance is quite compact for a tall goalie, almost hunched down for all shots he faces, but it works with a good balance of movement and explosivity. As demonstrated below, with a set body position on angle and challenging properly. Similarly with his glove positioning, he is able to get low for diving saves, or quick enough in raising to make a high stop.
In terms of back-up options in the reserve goalies, again, there hasn't much competition. The signing of Coates did just what it was meant to (in terms of lighting a fire under Scanlon), as he battled for his spot, and kept the number one shirt (metaphoricall, he prefers number 23 for some reason!), and continued apace after the Australian joined in January. But this is where the super signing (no jokes, I highly rate Tommy) of Mr Alexander comes in. Showing his ability right off the bat for Indian Gymkhana, his intensity showed an immediacy of ambition as quality as he offered stability between the posts, shutting out opposition after opposition, clicking his new team just at the right time to safe them from demotion and put them right up the table where they should have been to start off with.
Whilst it is great experience for third choice Leech being at such a strong club as Hampstead, I can't see him getting much opportunity to assert himself. Given that game experience is worth more than any training session, if he wants to push for national league level at some point, he will probably need to look for a transfer at some point, a la Tommy Alexander and similar, making the most of learning behind two great goalkeepers and seeing how they train and play and treat the game seriously.
For the season upcoming, I can see some great things happening as the battle for first place commences. Given it's the only 1A/1B (i.e. equal status goalie duo) set-up in the whole national league, it's like the equivalent of a pro football team have a star starter join them to battle it out, like if Arsenal signed competition for Szczesny. This is the competition we need at national league level it's a shame it's the only scenario right now. Either way, HWHC are going to have a decent goalkeeper behind their back four and thus strong defence, and I can see them starting to build a better squad off the back of this and finally doing themselves proud and pushing up the table and stay there for a good while, now that they have begun to manage this in recent seasons.
He is also starting to get places now that age and maturity is quicking in, over and above what you was able to achieve stepping straight into the premier league at the age of 19. In the follow-up clash this season past he kept East Grinstead to a single goal which is an achievements in itself, a reflection of how far he has come from those babysteps. Asserting this in his play and self confidence, his is often dominant at corners (an incredibly cruicial part of the game at this elite level) and strong out to challenge against free balls. Prefering to play without arm guards, he has lightning quick reflexes and strong self confidence, very important for competing at this level accountability wise. Also notable is the fact that he has taken Hampstead on long cup runs for three seasons in a row (or more, can't remember!), and they even managed to turn over Beeston, their bogeyman opponent this past season, falling at the final hurdle to Surbiton though.
On the flip side though, he does falter in his consistency at times, in terms of sometimes being amazing, sometimes not "turning up to the game" with that same fiery desire to win, where playing all out every game would be better than losing track, which is where the criticism comes from, from those that voice it. One key problem though is his self doubt and hesitation, especially against drag flicks, which seems to be his Achilles heel. Over thinking where he would be better off reacting out of instinct subconsciously, he is often giving away unfortunate cheap goals by over commiting and ending up unbalanced and in the wrong direction, unable to shift back across to make that all important save.
But for me, he is still a solid choice when "on his game". Even the world's best struggle with consistency, like Cortes has; great at the HIL and international games, then tails and sometimes Ian plays running boiling like a lost person in the Arizona desert, then lukewarm and cold. Even though some see his performances as sub-par, he has kept Hampstead out of the relegation zone and away from the danger of losing that important and hard earned status, year after year, for four seasons now (and many believed they wouldn't be capable of staying there), and seeing as they are always bombarded (for some reason it's a lost , but important for discussion), I even might dare to say that Scanners is often let down by HWHC, especially in the runaway demolition away against East Grinstead where the opponents were let loose and were just free scoring and free to do as they pleased. Sometimes I feel that he has the most work of any of the national league goalkeepers, but without a scoring stats system like in ice hockey, there is no quantified.
For me, personally, I wonder if he had a permanent goalie coach and competitor to keep on task; as humans we need accountability and target setting and review and feedback to make sure we are always improving. Having trained with him when he was preparing for the Junior World Cup in Malaysia, I have seen his level of commitment, desire and hard work, but it seems like it's not being pushed to its optimum best. But without regular goalie specific related analysis week in week out, his form seems to drop and wobble in comparison to the breakout season he had at the spritely age of 21 when he fought out Mat Simkins for the starting role. He performed well in a squad that was all over the place, in the U21's tournament and kept them in games where they shouldn't have been so, so I don't know why on earth he was dropped, and I was surprised to see Bailey thrown to the wolves where he was embarassed and outplayed, as demonstrated below (not fair or easy on a young 17 year old struggling with drag flicks at the time):
His stance is quite compact for a tall goalie, almost hunched down for all shots he faces, but it works with a good balance of movement and explosivity. As demonstrated below, with a set body position on angle and challenging properly. Similarly with his glove positioning, he is able to get low for diving saves, or quick enough in raising to make a high stop.
In terms of back-up options in the reserve goalies, again, there hasn't much competition. The signing of Coates did just what it was meant to (in terms of lighting a fire under Scanlon), as he battled for his spot, and kept the number one shirt (metaphoricall, he prefers number 23 for some reason!), and continued apace after the Australian joined in January. But this is where the super signing (no jokes, I highly rate Tommy) of Mr Alexander comes in. Showing his ability right off the bat for Indian Gymkhana, his intensity showed an immediacy of ambition as quality as he offered stability between the posts, shutting out opposition after opposition, clicking his new team just at the right time to safe them from demotion and put them right up the table where they should have been to start off with.
Whilst it is great experience for third choice Leech being at such a strong club as Hampstead, I can't see him getting much opportunity to assert himself. Given that game experience is worth more than any training session, if he wants to push for national league level at some point, he will probably need to look for a transfer at some point, a la Tommy Alexander and similar, making the most of learning behind two great goalkeepers and seeing how they train and play and treat the game seriously.
For the season upcoming, I can see some great things happening as the battle for first place commences. Given it's the only 1A/1B (i.e. equal status goalie duo) set-up in the whole national league, it's like the equivalent of a pro football team have a star starter join them to battle it out, like if Arsenal signed competition for Szczesny. This is the competition we need at national league level it's a shame it's the only scenario right now. Either way, HWHC are going to have a decent goalkeeper behind their back four and thus strong defence, and I can see them starting to build a better squad off the back of this and finally doing themselves proud and pushing up the table and stay there for a good while, now that they have begun to manage this in recent seasons.
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