I've been a critic in the past and am more than happy to eat humble pie. The bloke was fantastic yesterday, hopefully he can build on it. He looked full of confidence

Dont let Cabaye go

He was excellent.

Just hope the crowd no get behind him and gets his confidence up.

I’ve thought his game has improved since the club brought in Dean Kiel’s as goalkeeping coach last year. He looked a lot better in the 2nd half of last season, his form has not dropped, he made several excellent saves yesterday.

Unpopular opinion time...

We’re so used to Wayne Hennessey making the most fundamental & basic of errors that when he has a busy game and successfully does the basics right, as any premier league keeper should, we rave about him as if he’s put a Buffon-esque performance in.

It reminds me of the useless kid at Sunday league level that you’d stick at left back to make up the numbers. Could barely run in a straight line, let alone kick a ball, that when he managed to pass a ball that actually landed somewhat in the direction of a guy wearing the same kit as him, you’d react as if he should be playing Barcelona Youth rather than Balgowan FC.

As for Guaita. It’s not very encouraging that he hasn’t been identified as someone emphatically better than Hennessey, given the trouble we went to signing him and the assurance of many on this board that it was an absolute coup when some expressed legitimate doubts.

We're the Arthur over ere!

I think Roy summed it up really well post match when he said that on recent performances Wayne deserved to start and the shirt was his to lose.

He played well yesterday but equally we have not lost a game with Sakho/Tompkins in central defence. They remind of when we had Young and Thorn in those positions a formidable unit!

If you can name 3 first team goalkeepers worse than Hennessey feel free. Not based on the last 6 or so months either, when assessing someone’s quality you have to take into account the fact that they’ve been generally poor for the years they’ve played, despite ample chances.

Of course when a players form has improved (mainly due to an improved defence IMO), you’re not allowed to then have an opinion that in general he’s still pretty garbage. But I think it’s just that some of us can see beyond an improvement defensively & accept there is a time in which this won’t be enough to pave over the cracks.

Would love to be proved wrong and am happy to accept he put in a solid performance yesterday, not as amazing as people are making out, but solid nevertheless. But I think given the 5 or so years he’s been with us, there has been enough evidence to seriously suggest he lacks the quality required for a goalkeeper at this level when it really matters for us.

I agree on the last point, though. He seems thoroughly decent as a person and I have felt sorry for him due to some of the abuse he’s received from “fans”. I think it’s entirely acceptable to make the case amongst fans in the pub/on forums etc. that he’s not very good. But would never dream of hurling abuse at him on a match day/directly sending him abuse on social media. That’s pathetic and embarrassing for any “fan” to do to a player of their football club, regardless of ability.

Edited by Mstrobez (13 Aug 2018 12.18am)

We're the Arthur over ere!