Safia Middleton-Patel | Debut done

top1whoisman

Meet the press(conference)
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A promising 18-year old goalkeeper & Welsh international who signed her first professional contract with the club in January. Hope she gets minutes there as gaining first team experience is valuable. If she does well I'm quite confident that she'll spend next season on loan.

 
top1whoisman said:
A promising 18-year old goalkeeper & Welsh international who signed her first professional contract with the club in January. Hope she gets minutes there as gaining first team experience is valuable. If she does well I'm quite confident that she'll spend next season on loan.

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She's played a few games on "one week emergency" loans at Coventry but it would be good for her to play regularly - she's ready for it. She's already a full international for Wales on the strength of her junior team and U21 performances for us and Wales.
 
Clean sheet in her debut away at Sunderland. Glad she got a game before the end of the season.
 
A very good 45-minute performance today. Looked very assured, made a few decent saves and was comfortable in possession.
 
Good to hear it. She needs the experience and the game time won't come as third choice at United.

Not sure if it implies anything about a new addition to the keeper team arriving, but one thing at a time ...
 
Watford were bottom of the table with one win and had conceded the most goals in the league (30) when Saf joined them. With her in goal: 3 matches, 2 wins & 2 clean sheets.

 
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top1whoisman said:
Watford were bottom of the table with one win and had conceded the most goals in the league (30) when Saf joined them. With her in goal: 2 matches, 2 wins & 2 clean sheets.
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Excellent. I am pleased for her, and thanks for the info.
 
It would be nice if our social media staff would make an effort to get to know our own players. There’s a reason for her wearing sunglasses, and it’s not style.

 
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She shared her autism diagnosis last year and talked about how the club and the players had helped her during the diagnostic process.

Perhaps she feels as if she's reached another milestone in her journey.
 
Huge game for Saf! I am as excited for tonight as I was when we finally saw Phallon this time last year!
 
So delighted for her, congrats Saf!

Honest assessment from yesterday.

Very comfortable on the ball. One might say too sometimes even a bit too comfortable, but this is how the modern game is and she looked very composed and calm under pressure. Decent short passing too. Didn't see much of her long range passing so it's impossible to judge her on that.

In order to become a first team gk at a decent level, I think it's obvious that she needs to develop physically. Compared to say Emily Ramsey who was very explosive, strong and quick to react, Saf looked a bit underwhelming regarding these attributes. Something similar to Baggaley in this regard. Her size could also become an issue.

Anyway I'm so happy she finally got her chance. The experience will do her a world of good and I'm sure both Wilko and PTJ will do everything they can to help her realize her full potential.

ps. I hope she doesn't read comments on social media. Pretty brutal for a 20-year old keeper who just made her debut.
 
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