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Best and Worst Goalies in your teams - ever


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5 hours ago, Speroni*1 said:

Best - Rab Douglas, Julian Speroni, Michel Pageau

Meh - Ludovic Roy, Scott Bain (In with the best for his first season, in with the worst for the rest of his spell so averages out), Jamie Langfield, Kyle Letheren, Steve Simonsen, Conor Hazard, Elliot Parish, Scott Murray, Tony Bullock, Billy Thomson, Scott Fox

Worst - Jack Hamilton, Kelvin Jack, Marco Rocatti, Derek Soutar & Craig Samson.

Only including players that had a regular stint in goal so not including the likes of Schenk etc. If I've not included them in the list then sage to say they're that 'meh' they've been forgotten about.

The meh list isn't all equal. Some extremely more meh than others.

Posted that in the Championship version of this thread.

Used to be a goalkeeper when I was young (Not above any level of playing with my mates) so have always paid more attention to keepers than any other position.

My favourite non-Dundee keepers included:

Peter Kjaer - Colourblind but sensational for Aberdeen.
Stefan Klos - Vastly underrated keeper in that he was behind Jens Lehman in the German national team. Unlucky to have played in the same period as Oliver Kahn. Best goalkeeper I've watched in Scotland. Scandalous that he was on the bench for a season behind Alan McGregor. McGregor is a good keeper, but Klos was on a different level.
Javier Sanchez-Broto - Collected crosses for Livi that he shouldn't have been coming for and it always impressed he as he wasn't an intimidating keeper ala Rab Douglas.
Antti Niemi - Fantastic keeper for Hearts. Craig Gordon wasn't on his level IMO. (Hearts fans better placed to disagree)

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7 minutes ago, Speroni*1 said:


Stefan Klos - Vastly underrated keeper in that he was behind Jens Lehman in the German national team. Unlucky to have played in the same period as Oliver Kahn. Best goalkeeper I've watched in Scotland. Scandalous that he was on the bench for a season behind Alan McGregor. McGregor is a good keeper, but Klos was on a different level.
 

Was it Klos or McGregor who got dropped for that Leitizi boy when Le Guen was there?

Remember seeing their line up the day we beat them at Ibrox and boasting about their arrogance in selecting a random reserve keeper, only to find out he was their number one these days.

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1 hour ago, Jim McLean's Ghost said:

I see you just completely repressed the Lee Hollis, Gunnar Neilsen, Dan Twardzik era. Sorry for bringing it up.


 

I can see your point to a certain degree, but Hollis didn't really do much wrong.  He was just 'meh' to me.  He was an understudy keeper who kept the No 1 jersey warm for a season until we signed Randolph's replacement IMO.

Neilsen - aye I mind on him.  My daughter was about 6 and asked him at the callender signing event 'who are you?'  He told her.  She replied ' never heard of you'.  He looked crushed.  Didn't feel right putting him in the group after that.  

Dan Twardzik was the best 4'5" goalie Ive ever seen playing fitba - behave yourself!🤣

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1 minute ago, RandomGuy. said:

Was it Klos or McGregor who got dropped for that Leitizi boy when Le Guen was there?

Remember seeing their line up the day we beat them at Ibrox and boasting about their arrogance in selecting a random reserve keeper, only to find out he was their number one these days.

Ronald Waterreus played 49 games in 05-06 with Klos playing 3. (Another shocker - when Klos was no longer injured).

Letizi started the Le Guen era as number 1 with McGregor as number 2, that quickly changed.

Stefan Klos was third choice that season. Fucking hell. :lol:

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9 minutes ago, paul wright scores said:

Best Killie keepers in my time watching us are - Allan McCulloch, Ally Hunter and Jim Stewart.

Worst - Jim Brown,  Francois Dubourdeau, and Chad Harpur.  Craig Samson was very poor too. 

We had Dubordeau for a spell at Dens. Never played a game ahead of Kelvin Jack and Derek Soutar which says a lot (We also had Harpur!). I remembered him being alright for Killie/Motherwell - obviously mind is failing me.

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On a side note (and I know he wasn't a Well player) - I thought Andy Rhodes was a fantastic keeper back in the day.  Vastly underrated.

 

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10 minutes ago, Speroni*1 said:

We had Dubordeau for a spell at Dens. Never played a game ahead of Kelvin Jack and Derek Soutar which says a lot (We also had Harpur!). I remembered him being alright for Killie/Motherwell - obviously mind is failing me.

He had a few good games for Motherwell, awful for us.

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17 minutes ago, Speroni*1 said:

Letizi started the Le Guen era as number 1 with McGregor as number 2, that quickly changed.

Stefan Klos was third choice that season. Fucking hell. :lol:

Aye that was it 😂

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3 hours ago, EdinburghLivi said:

Agree on the best. Alexander probably edges for me as I only started following regularly in 2007/08.

I would put Ludo Roy on top of the worst just due to the goal conceded to Dunfermline. 

Yeah Broto was the best kicker of the ball I've ever seen, and not just at Livi, good penalty stopper too (getting us a draw against Celtic saving Larsson's last min pen). But Alexander prob edges it for me too, with his 2nd spell helping us to win promotion. He was so cool and calm, he inspired total confidence right through our defence.

That one with Roy must go down as the worst GK blunder we've had at Livi. 

24 minutes ago, Speroni*1 said:

Ronald Waterreus played 49 games in 05-06 with Klos playing 3. (Another shocker - when Klos was no longer injured).

Letizi started the Le Guen era as number 1 with McGregor as number 2, that quickly changed.

Stefan Klos was third choice that season. Fucking hell. :lol:

Waterreus let in a 48 yarder from Snodgrass in a midweek 2-2 draw against us, Rangers were 2-0 up at the time too, ball just trundled in and bounced over his arms into the net.:lol: Snoddy then equalised with his 2nd goal and James McPake (who was playing as a striker at that time) ran through for a 1 on 1 with Wattereus but hit it straight at him. Klos was on the bench, thank feck.

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17 minutes ago, Speroni*1 said:

Letizi started the Le Guen era as number 1 with McGregor as number 2, that quickly changed.

Stefan Klos was third choice that season. Fucking hell. :lol:

Aye that was it 😂

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We had Dubordeau for a spell at Dens. Never played a game ahead of Kelvin Jack and Derek Soutar which says a lot (We also had Harpur!). I remembered him being alright for Killie/Motherwell - obviously mind is failing me.
I remember him being class at Motherwell so you're not alone in memory playing tricks on you[emoji23]

He definitely played a blinder on a Sunday Sportscene game for Well though, I definitely remember that much. Possibly against Rangers at Fir Park.
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5 hours ago, Speroni*1 said:

Posted that in the Championship version of this thread.

Used to be a goalkeeper when I was young (Not above any level of playing with my mates) so have always paid more attention to keepers than any other position.

My favourite non-Dundee keepers included:

Peter Kjaer - Colourblind but sensational for Aberdeen.
Stefan Klos - Vastly underrated keeper in that he was behind Jens Lehman in the German national team. Unlucky to have played in the same period as Oliver Kahn. Best goalkeeper I've watched in Scotland. Scandalous that he was on the bench for a season behind Alan McGregor. McGregor is a good keeper, but Klos was on a different level.
Javier Sanchez-Broto - Collected crosses for Livi that he shouldn't have been coming for and it always impressed he as he wasn't an intimidating keeper ala Rab Douglas.
Antti Niemi - Fantastic keeper for Hearts. Craig Gordon wasn't on his level IMO. (Hearts fans better placed to disagree)

Bobby (as he was then) Douglas was 3rd choice keeper at Meadowbank when he was starting out ..

Did quite well for himself and is a good guy too 

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5 hours ago, paul wright scores said:

Best Killie keepers in my time watching us are - Allan McCulloch, Ally Hunter and Jim Stewart.

Worst - Jim Brown,  Francois Dubourdeau, and Chad Harpur.  Craig Samson was very poor too. 

Agree ...... plus

Best - Lekovic, Marshall & Bachmann

Worst - Holland, Rascle & Letheren

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Going to try to rank all of the keepers since I started watching Killie round about 1997 - there are a few I have left off because I don't really remember enough about them to have a real opinion.

 

THE GOOD

1. Daniel Bachmann (28 games). Wasn't a great deal of doubt in my mind about this one. One of those goalkeepers who didn't even make that many amazing saves, mainly because his command of the game and his positioning was so good that he didn't need to. Big and commanding, and as great as MacDonald was for us, the team instantly improved when he came into it. A real shame that he wasn't able to go back down to Watford and break into their team.

2. Cammy Bell (131 games). It's easy to forget just how good he was for us, given how his career has ended up. His performance in the League Cup final was the single best goalkeeping performance I've ever seen from a Killie keeper in a big game. There were mistakes (eg Hibs at home in the Scottish Cup QF), but they were generally few and far between.

3. Freddie Woodman (15 games). This seemed like an unnecessary signing given that MacDonald had been our best performer over the previous season and a half, but Woodman (along with teammate Sean Longstaff) proved to be a great use of Lee Clark's Newcastle contacts. Just a very good goalkeeper who, similar to Bachmann, had a great command of his area and was a dominant presence. Sadly came back and haunted us when he rocked up with Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup QF shoot-out in 2018.

4. Jamie MacDonald (132 games). Probably our best player in his debut season - without him I reckon we would have been relegated. Seemed to constantly make saves you felt he had no right to make. Also had a great year in Steve Clarke's first season (blunder at Easter Road aside), but as the team around him got better you gradually started to realise that he wasn't perhaps able to be a consistent top six (or top three) keeper. Disappointing that his last act for us (probably) was chucking in the opener against Nomads - he deserved better than that

5. Gordon Marshall (185 games). Marshall was a very good keeper who was part of Killie's best defence in my time watching the club, and perhaps if I had been a bit older at the time I would have him a bit higher on the list. Did have a tendency to make rash decisions such as fairly regularly handling outside of his box, but he more than made up for it with some excellent saves.

6. Dragoje Lekovic (115 games). Would probably have been much higher on the list if I had seen more of him, but he left for Gijon not long after I started going along regularly. Will always been remembered for that save in the bottom corner in the 1997 Scottish Cup final. One of my first Killie tops was his luminous orange and purple strip.

7. Alan Combe (168 games). A good solid goalkeeper who very rarely let us down, even if his blunders tended to be high profile (the League Cup final v Hibs, throwing one in off an Aberdeen striker). Used to love the fact that he almost always wore a green strip against Hearts and a maroon one against Hibs. A very very angry man at times.

 

THE OK

8. Mark Brown (15 games). Played for half a season on loan from Celtic Fairly solid but unspectacular - one of those keepers who would never do anything stupid, but would also never really win you a game.

9. Graeme Smith (47 games). Youth team player who managed to break into the first team under Jefferies, but never really nailed down a place because he wasn't as good as the likes of Marshall and Combe. Weirdly went to Rangers to be third choice and ended up on the bench for the UEFA Cup final.

10. Larry Branescu (30 games). Even when we were keeping a lot of clean sheets earlier in the season I was never too sure of him - he really struggles with long range shots and generally seemed to panic his defenders by flying out to attack balls that were never his. However, he did seem to be improving somewhat before the shutdown (meltdown at Tynecastle aside). No idea what Juventus ever saw in him.

 

THE BAD

11. Craig Samson (79 games). Seems to be revered at St Mirren but reviled everywhere else he has played. Broke through as a youth player but only made a single appearance. Returned about a decade later, and was part of an absolutely awful Killie team, part of which was down to him. He wasn't absolutely terrible at any point, but he just didn't really save enough shots.

12. Damien Rascle (6 games). Arrived from some (very) lower league French mob as third choice, but ended up getting a few games. He was quite big and could throw the ball really far, but ultimately was exactly what you'd expect from someone signed on the cheap from an obscure French team with no real intention of actually playing him.

13. Anssi Jaakkola (14 games). Signed by Mixu Paatelainen to compete with Cammy Bell, and was given plenty of chances to prove himself. Paatelainen also picked him for Finland when he left for that job, but I think he was the only one who saw anything in him at that point. He was really big, but almost never saved anything. Astonished to see him playing semi-regularly for Reading in the English Championship for the last three seasons (before joining Bristol Rovers last summer) - either he improved a lot or that league is much worse than I thought.

14. Kyle Letheren (12 games). Generally looked like someone had put an outfielder in goals, but he did pull off the odd good save which keeps him out of the category below

 

THE REALLY REALLY BAD

15. Colin Meldrum (86 games). EIGHTY SIX GAMES?! Meldrum was a fucking rubbish goalkeeper - he was back-up for years to several very good keepers, and it was always groan-inducing if the first choice was injured/suspended and you heard his name read out over the tannoy. Occasionally got a chance to prove himself as first choice when someone left, but we'd always end up signing a new keeper within months (if not weeks). His nadir was an absolutely awful performance against Nice in a very winnable Cup Winners Cup tie. Had a very good left foot and seemed to cross the ball better than any of our outfielders during the pre-match warm up.

16. Francois Dubourdeau (22 games). I always wanted him to be good, but he wasn't. Used to come flying out his goals at regular intervals and very rarely got anywhere near the ball when he did.

17. Conor Brennan (7 games). Brought across as a youngster by Kenny Shiels as one for the future, he ended up playing a few games before he was really ready. Despite being quite big he never commanded his area in any way, and most shots he faced went in.

18. Jan Koprivec (6 games). A Slovenian international who rocked up this season. You assumed it would only be a matter of time before he usurped Branescu, and the more he didn't play, the more worried you got about how bad he must be.  Very bad as it turned out. I'm not sure he made a single save across those six appearances.

19. Leo Fasan (4 games). One of very few black marks on Steve Clarke was the fact that he signed this clown. He made four "appearances" in the sense that his name was on the teamsheet, but he might as well not have been there. Appeared to have no hands or legs when shots came near him.

20. Chad Harpur (2 games). This guy was surely part of some long-running practical joke gone wrong - a wee fat ginger South African guy. I've never seen anyone at Rugby Park who looked less like a footballer. His only league appearance was a 4-2 defeat to Gretna.

 

UNABLE TO JUDGE

Michael Watt (4 games). Signed on a short-term deal as cover for injuries. I was presumably at at least a couple of his four appearances, but I don't remember him at all. I'm led to believe he was shite.

Colin Stewart (1 game). His only appearance was a 6-2 win over Hibs where he scored an own goal after the ball bounced off the post and hit him in the back. We dominated that game so I have no idea how good he was, but his career since suggests probably not great.

Lee Robinson (1 game). Made a single sub appearance at Easter Road and saved a penalty, but I wasn't there.

Mark Ridgers (1 game). Signed on an emergency loan for a League Cup game against Hearts because Jamie MacDonald was injured and Conor Brennan was cup-tied. I wasn't there, but we lost and my guess is he was probably shite.

Oliver Davies (2 games). Young keeper signed on loan from Swansea who played in two League Cup games, neither of which I was at. Was weirdly then signed again on loan the following season, before being sent back after about a month.

Devlin Mackay (1 game). Youth keeper who has always been highly rated but has really struggled with injuries. Thrust into a high-pressure debut on the final day of last season against Rangers when MacDonald went off in the second half. Looked pretty confident and composed but I'm not sure he had a real save to make.

Gus McPherson (2 games?). Legendary full-back had to go in goals on at least two occasions. Went in for about 20 minutes in a 5-1 win over Raith, and kept a clean shee. More impressively played a whole half in a League Cup win over Hibs, conceding two goals but making a couple of big saves.

James Fowler (1 game). Had to wear the gloves for six minutes after Alan Combe was sent off in a pumping at Ibrox. We had two keepers on the bench, but had just used our final sub. Immediately conceded from a penalty and also let in a free-kick. Funnily enough, the match programme that day described Fowler as a versatile player who had played in every position for Killie apart from in goals.

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Fortunate to have seen the best live
Ernie McGarr, Bobby Clark, Jim Leighton, Theo Snelders.

Worst live
Warner(? On loan, let in 5 in an end of season game v Hearts)
Robbie Winters

Brian Irvine was surprisingly ok

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7 hours ago, tamthebam said:

Bobby (as he was then) Douglas was 3rd choice keeper at Meadowbank when he was starting out ..

Did quite well for himself and is a good guy too 

Reckon he was a backs against the wall keeper. No surprise Celtic fans remember his Liverpool performance well. Give Rab time to think and he'd usually muck up but have him having to deal with constant situations and he was one of the best.

Only keeper I've ever watched that would do a full fitness work out when the ball wasn't in his half.

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