The Republic of Ireland's number one goalkeeper Darren Randolph was in a conundrum last summer, either sit on the sidelines at West Ham as back up to Joe Hart, or become the number one goalkeeper at a different club, but possibly drop down from the Premier League.
The Bray native jumped at the chance at regular football when Middlesbrough agreed a £5million deal with West Ham for his services last summer and even though he dropped down to the Championship, his statistics would suggest he is a key player for Boro' in their push to be promoted back to the English top flight,
STATS: @RandzOfficial so far:
7 games
5 clean sheets
18 saves
100% claim success
Solid start from the Boro keeper! 👐 pic.twitter.com/pR3v4Lzx51— EverythingMFC (@EverythingMFC) September 14, 2017
Five clean sheets in seven matches is impressive reading for any goalkeeper, at any level, even if Boro' are perceived to be one of the better sides in the Championship.
They currently sit in 11th place in the Championship, with eleven points after seven games and are six points off the leaders Leeds United, but Randolph is making his presence felt in the team and with his defenders.
What makes these early season statistics so startling and comforting for Randolph and Irish fans is just how much of a contrast it is to his season at West Ham last year.
Randolph was second choice at the club behind Adrian until manager Slaven Bilic replaced him with the Irishman at the start of November last year following a string of poor performances by the Spaniard.
He played 22 times in the Premier League, but conceded a whopping 38 goals, only keeping four clean sheets during his spell in the side.
He already has one more clean sheet for Boro' at this stage of the season than all of last season for the Hammers. In fairness to Randolph, his form since moving away from London only confirms a lot the problems in the West Ham defence have nothing to do with their goalkeeping situation.
With Ireland facing a massive task to turn around their fortunes and qualify for Russia 2018, Martin O'Neill will be delighted to see his number one goalkeeper is finding real form in the Championship ahead of next month's games with Moldova and Wales.
