The goalkeeping position at Swindon Town has been up for grabs for a very long time. In recent years we’ve seen ‘keepers come and go, a former England u21 international David Lucas fail to stake his claim to the no.1 jersey and the supporters unconvinced by an array of mistakes, with Phil Smith often singled out for blame.

Under Paolo Di Canio we’ve had two shocks between the sticks; the first seeing Phil Smith awarded a contract extension and secondly the arrival of Mattia Lanzano from the depths of Italian football.

Once the season started, Smith had completely missed the opportunity to make the position his own in his many early outings and was soon sidelined with injury. His deputy Lanzano joined very low on confidence and was soon unsettled and nervous between the posts, leading to his massive error at Burton Albion. Despite putting faith in these two ‘keepers, Di Canio was soon forced to seek a goalkeeping solution…enter Wes Foderingham; Paolo’s signing of the season so far, joining on loan until mid January from Crystal Palace.

The Town no.35 has been nothing short of a revelation making five successive clean sheets in his opening League Two games against Accrington, Plymouth, Gillingham, Bradford City and Port Vale; the best return by a Swindon Town debutant ‘keeper.

Seemingly his only mistake so far has been picking up a backpass against Bradford City, which Wes was adamant took a touch off a Bantam player.

After conceding against Huddersfield in the FA Cup 1st Round tie the pressure was on Wes to claim his sixth successive clean sheet in the Football League and equal a club record set by legendary ‘keeper Peter Downsborough at the start of the 1968/69 season.

Unfortunately it wasn’t to be at AFC Wimbledon. A cross from the left was completely miss-kicked by Risser and a deflected shot by Hatton, which wrong-footed Wes Foderingham, found the back of the net after six minutes. Still…456 minutes without conceding was impressive.

Three more clean sheets against Aldershot, Colchester United and Morecambe have made it eight in 13 appearances; with the on loan ‘keeper yet to concede more than one goal in a single game.

I’ll put it another way…when Wes joined our goalkeeper’s save rate in League Two stood at 57% – Phil Smith 70% and Mattia Lanzano 40%. Today it stands at a much improved 76% following Wes’ personal save rate of 93%.

Wes’ influence has surely been no small part of the reason why secured a 15 game unbeaten run. His confident displays between the posts gave the solid back four of Caddis, Flint, McCormack and Ridehalgh the assurance to play their game, knowing their efforts will always be backed up.

The true test of any great ‘keeper is how they react and bounce back from a massive mistake or conceding three goals they really should’ve saved. As far as Wes is concerned I doubt we’re going to witness him needing to bounce back for some time soon*.

The real question is can we sign him when his loan expires? OI! WRAY get your chequebook out!

*Now I’ve written that Wes will have a shocker against Northampton…

View the other key moments of 2011