Goalkeepers are perhaps the most underappreciated part of a football team. A player that not only is (for the majority of the time) the last line of defence but is also the one who can dictate how a defence sets up against its opposing attack. And well, Newport County have, for the most part, two options. The well-travelled, experienced Joe Day or, the international, potentially more modern-based goalkeeper Nick Townsend. Within this article, I’ll go over the stats and careers to see if we can see a clear option for the first choice next season.
Career Summaries
Joe Day
As mentioned, Joe Day is without a doubt the more experienced of both goalkeepers, the 32-year-old who stands at 186cm/6’1” tall, has represented many clubs, including starting his senior career at Rushden & Diamonds FC from 2008 to 2011 and has since represented many different clubs in the EFL, from Peterborough to Cardiff City, Bristol Rovers and AFC Wimbledon. Joe has had 3 separate spells at Newport, one being a loan from Peterborough from August to November of 2014 where he made 16 appearances, the second being his longest stint, joining on a permanent in January 2015 from Peterborough on a free transfer and departing in June of 2019 after making 227 appearances in that time. He then went on to experience Cardiff City, AFC Wimbledon and Bristol Rovers before returning to Newport County in the summer of 2021, where he has an additional 62 appearances since arriving.
Nick Townsend
Nick Townsend is the far less experienced Keeper, the 28-year-old, standing at a slightly shorter 181cm/5’11”. Nick started his senior career at Birmingham City in 2013 but made various loan moves to clubs including Oxford City and Lincoln City before departing from Birmingham City in August 2015 to join Barnsley, he also made a loan move in that time, moving to Solihull Moors in October to November of 2017 before making a return to Barnsley, making that a very short loan. Townsend then made the move to Newport County in the summer of 2018 and has since played 111 games for the Exiles. As mentioned previously, Townsend is an international keeper. He opted to represent Antigua and Barbuda in June of 2022 and has made 6 appearances for his country so far.
Statistics (League Two) (22/23 season)
Joe Day
Day has been without a doubt the more played of the two keepers, playing 28 matches of the League Two season and within these games, he has had the stats of… 8 clean sheets, 0/1 penalty saves, 33 goals conceded and 53 total saves. These stats are not seen as the best at all in my opinion, especially when you consider how poor some of the goals were. However, while our defence has been good, there have been moments where the defensive errors have led to goals and this can be at little/no, fault of the goalkeeper, especially within the game against Harrogate Town at Rodney Parade on the 25th of April where a lack of ‘switching on’ from the team led to goals being conceded in a 2-3 loss.
Nick Townsend
Townsend has not featured in as many games as Joe Day has this season, playing only 18 matches in League Two throughout this season, yet his stats are… 2 clean sheets, 23 goals conceded, 44 saves and 0/2 penalty saves. This may not seem as impressive as the very low amount of clean sheets and just overall stats. However, in my final statement just below here, you can see a potential deciding factor that could mean Townsend edges it, but who knows…
Summary, deciding factors and my thoughts
Well now you have seen the stats and had overviews of both careers, have you decided who you think should start next season? I am sure most will say based on what I have stated here that Joe Day is the obvious answer, correct? Well, there’s one heavy factor that you cannot take away from a modern-day goalkeeper: distribution. Being able to distribute the ball at various rates and lengths is huge in deciding who is a better-rounded keeper. And from my own watching and my research into opinions on both keepers. It seems to be majorly accepted that Nick Townsend is a far better distributor of the ball than Joe Day is. From what I have seen Townsend’s strengths within distribution are exactly what Day’s weaknesses are with it. Townsend is a far faster decision-maker within every range of distribution, which can be pivotal in Graham Coughlan’s counter-attacking football as you can imagine, it gives the opposition no time to regroup. Day struggles at this and tends to give the opposition far more time to regroup. Finally, long-range kicking without a question too goes to Townsend, it’s something Joe Day really will need work on should he be the main keeper next season.
You’ve finally got to consider the fact that there is a chance that Townsend leaves in the summer, as his contract does expire this month
So who do you take? The more experienced and maybe better overall shot-stopper in Joe Day, or do you take the well-rounded keeper who is still on par with Joe Day in terms of ability, especially at making lower-driven saves. For me, if you haven’t guessed, I would love for Nick Townsend to be our number 1 next season, he more than proved it for me on our final away game of the season against Gillingham especially, nearly saving a penalty, good punches off of corners, good management and commandment of his box and finally, just a suburb individual display of goalkeeping and the probable main reason we left Priestfield with all 3 points. So overall, for me, Nick Townsend should be our starting keeper next season. However, both goalkeepers do show different strengths/weaknesses which can be good/bad against certain teams and various playstyles.
