Pics: Andrew Vaughan and Jim Whittamore
ROSS WORNER grew up watching videos of goalkeeping idol David Seaman – now the Sutton United stopper hopes meeting the man himself can inspire his season.
A group of Non-League’s best keepers made their annual pilgrimage to England C goalie coach Mick Payne’s Art of Saving camp last Sunday.
Worner, Dulwich Hamlet‘s Preston Edwards, Woking‘s Brandon Hall, Braintree Town new boy Jamie Butler, former AFC Wimbledon and current Grays Athletic No.1 Seb Brown, as well as Dover Athletic‘s Mitch Walker, were on hand to dish out advice to budding keepers.
But there was another big draw at Haileybury College in Hertford – legendary Arsenal and England goalie Seaman.
Hero
Worner is a big Gunners fan and couldn’t quite believe his eyes when he turned up at Payne’s academy.
Worner, 26, told The NLP: “I walked down to the training pitches and saw Seaman and thought, ‘Bloody hell, he has turned up’. I’m an Arsenal fan. He’s an inspiration – he’s the reason I started playing football.
“I watched Euro 96, he obviously had an unbelievable tournament and from then on I wanted to be in goal.
“I’d bumped into him before. I was at Charlton and we were playing Peterborough, we walked in and he was stood there. I didn’t clock him at first, then looked back and thought, ‘That’s David Seaman!’ My old goalkeeping coach came in and said, ‘Hello Dave’. I remember thinking, ‘That’s my idol standing there’.
“I used to watch videos of him making saves. I would just put that on if I wanted to feel good about making saves.
“So it was good to properly meet him on Sunday. He got involved with the drills to show the kids crossing, handling and bits of positioning.
“We sat down and had lunch with him after. He told us a few stories from his playing days, talked about Gazza and had us all laughing. You couldn’t ask for a nicer guy. When you’ve watched this person on TV for most of his career, and then chatting to him about it is brilliant.”
Worner was crowned Goalkeeper of the Year at The NLP‘s National Game Awards in May after helping Sutton to the National League South title.
Experience
He says the chance to meet up with other Non-League keepers and swap opinions can only help him as the U’s take on the National League this season – as well as listening to how Seaman dealt with mistakes in his playing days.
“I’ve known Mick for a while, so I was really pleased to go along – it was like a big reunion of everyone I’ve played against and lads I used to play with at Wimbledon, like James Shea and Seb Brown,” Worner said.
“It’s always nice to hear other goalkeepers’ opinions. Obviously there tends to only be a couple of you at a club at a time so you just work together. It makes you realise you’re not going mad and other keepers are thinking the same thing.
“Hearing from David Seaman, who hasn’t made many mistakes, but the ones he did were high profile, and how he got over them was good. That’s why he played at such a high standard because he would get over it straightaway.”
