“Bayzo” and our senior goalkeepers have been passing on their wisdom as part of the club’s “Goalkeeper Day” - and our cameras were there to capture it all.
Ashley Bayes was delighted to pass on goalkeeping tips to our next generation at our New Malden training base.
“I just love goalkeeping! I’m passionate about it, love every aspect of it,” said Ashley. “It’s one big happy family! It’s about breeding for the future and what the standards are that we expect."
The day was arranged by Lead Youth Phase Coach James Oliver-Pearce and Ashley. Academy Head of Goalkeeping Jordan Knight brought along our talented crop of youngsters, where they joined Nathan Trott, Nik Tzanev and Joe McDonnell. Under-18s keepers Bert White and Matthew Cox were also in attendance, along with Leatherhead’s Zaki Nazih Oualah.
“It’s half-term week, so we got the under-11s to 16s in,” said Ashley. “They watched the seniors work in the morning, we did a question and answer session with them, had lunch and then we went out in the afternoon and delivered a session. I was really impressed with them.
“They had fun with the senior goalkeepers as well. They see Bert and ‘Coxy’ coming through and it gives them a lift. We’ll hopefully do it again at some stage.
“Mainly, it was a technical and tactical session. We had a bit of fun at the start with some head tennis, then we went into a handling and footwork session to get them opened up and then we replicated what the seniors did in the morning.
“It’s all about working their feet, moving on angles, working their hands, working on low shots and different types of shots. Basically, we are trying to cover every aspect of the technical element of their game. I was really pleased with the standard to be honest.”
Jordan Knight said: “For young Stanley for example, who is 11, it meant a lot for him to see how Nathan Trott works, it shows him how he needs to improve.
“What was really nice was for the Academy keepers to see the senior keepers work in the morning. They’ve seen that there isn’t really too much difference from what we will do to what they do – it’s just the intensity and quality. It’s nice to see what we do is mirrored to what they do and then see how the first team perform.”
To see exactly what went on at our Academy Goalkeeper Day, click on the link below to see an in-depth feature, via our official You Tube channel.