Cardiff stopper signed in time for tonight
Neal Ardley has moved quickly to bring in a new goalkeeper ahead of tonight’s game against Accrington Stanley with Cardiff City’s Ben Wilson signing in time to be included in the squad.
With number one James Shea having suffered a groin injury, Neal decided to move for the 23-year-old, who has signed on loan for 28 days.
The club required international clearance to make Wilson available for selection and paperwork has now been completed in time for the player to be eligible.
Ironically, Wilson made his debut for Cardiff City against Wimbledon in a 1-0 win earlier this season for the Championship club in the Capital One Cup. After completing his apprenticeship with Sunderland, Wilson had spells with Cambridge United and tonight’s opponents Accrington Stanley, before joining Cardiff permanently in January 2014, after a successful trial spell.
“With James Shea having a problem with his groin, which he has carried for a few weeks now, we decided this was probably the right time to take him out of the equation. On Saturday, we drew up a list of five potential goalkeepers that we could bring in knowing that they were going to be young ones. ‘Bayzo’ worked really hard going through a list of targets and he made a lot of phone calls. It’s hard to bring in an experienced goalkeeper for the sort of money available. Speaking during an interview for Dons Player, Neal Ardley said:
“Ben played against us in the league cup earlier this season and he comes highly recommended from Martyn Margetson (goalkeeper coach at Cardiff City). Martyn spoke very highly of Ben and he really rates him. If we decide that for a few weeks we need to leave James Shea alone, we are asking Joe McDonnell to come in and young Will Mannion to be on the bench. Although they are people we think very highly of, it is a tall ask, particularly on the back of conceding five goals. We felt it would be right to bring someone in now.”
The photograph above shows Ben Wilson in action against the Dons in August (picture taken by Carl Robertson @ciacIMAGES).