England May Have Their Three Lions But Scotland Have Three Quality Keepers

Much has been made about England’s goalkeeper selection with pretty much only a 37-year-old to choose from.

Well there is no such problem north of the border as Scotland possess two of the best keepers in Europe. Sunderland’s Craig Gordon is the countries number one but he has Rangers Allan McGregor breathing down his neck.

Gordon has been number one since his days at Hearts and it was his performances for Scotland as well as Hearts that earned him that £9 million move to the Barclay’s Premier League last summer.

Allan McGregor has been inspirational for Rangers since Walter Smith returned to the Ibrox hot seat and he was one of the main reasons Rangers were challenging on four fronts last season. Sadly an injury picked up against Celtic saw him miss the title run in as well as the Scottish and UEFA Cup finals.

This season he was linked with Barcelona, Newcastle United and Aston Villa as Rangers crashed out of Europe and it was rumoured he’d be sold to balance the books. In the end though it was Carlos Cuellar that moved on and Rangers kept a hold of their prized number one.

McGregor is also somewhat of a penalty specialist having saved one for club and country this season already.

Thursday night saw a third name added to the illustrious list.

Motherwell’s Graeme Smith was sensational against Nancy in the UEFA Cup. Motherwell were away to France’s surprise package of last season and needed a strong performance from their number one.

The 25-year-old went one better and kept Motherwell in the game with a string of important saves including a penalty and a last minute one on one stop. Well went down 1-0 but have every chance to overturn that score line at Fir Park in the return leg.

The best compliment that could be thrown Smith’s way is that he is very similar to Craig Gordon and I honestly thought I was watching the Sunderland keeper against Nancy.

National boss George Burley will have taken notice (as well as a host of English scouts) and expect to see the former Rangers youngster in the next Scotland squad.

Funnily enough, Rangers current third choice keeper is also called Graeme Smith. So much for John Smith being the most recurring name on the National register!

Scotland may only have one lion but at least they have three fantastic keepers.

Photo from www.telegraph.co.uk