Keiren Westwood

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search

<templatestyles src="Module:Infobox/styles.css"></templatestyles>

Keiren Westwood
Kieren Westwood.jpg
Westwood on international duty with the Republic of Ireland in 2012
Personal information
Full name Keiren Westwood[1]
Date of birth (1984-10-23) 23 October 1984 (age 40)[1]
Place of birth Manchester, England
Height Script error: No such module "person height".
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Team information
Current team
Sheffield Wednesday
Number 1
Youth career
000?–2002 Manchester City
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2002–2004 Manchester City 0 (0)
2004 Oldham Athletic (loan) 0 (0)
2004–2008 Carlisle United 131 (0)
2008–2011 Coventry City 131 (0)
2011–2014 Sunderland 19 (0)
2014– Sheffield Wednesday 77 (0)
International career
2009– Republic of Ireland 18 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 23:09, 23rd April 2016
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 21 February 2016

Keiren Westwood (born 23 October 1984) is a professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Championship club Sheffield Wednesday and the Republic of Ireland national team. He qualifies to play for the Irish national team by virtue of grandparents from County Wexford was for a time Ireland's first choice keeper, following the international retirement of Shay Given.[3][4]

Club career

Manchester City

Westwood was born in Manchester.[1] After being rejected by Manchester United as a boy,[4] he started his career at Manchester City where he never played a first team game and was released as he was understudy to David James and Nicky Weaver. Weeks before his release he had broken his hand while on loan at Oldham Athletic.[4] He then had unsuccessful trials at Bradford City and Accrington Stanley.[4] After this he contemplated giving up football, to start a new career as a police officer.[4]

Carlisle United

Westwood then joined Carlisle United, becoming the understudy to Matt Glennon. Although he played in most cup games, in March 2005, when Glennon was injured, Westwood played some Conference games for Carlisle before being replaced by the fit-again Glennon.

In the 2005–06 season, Glennon left Carlisle and they signed Anthony Williams as his replacement. It looked like Westwood would be the club's number two goalkeeper again, though he finally got his chance to compete for the number one shirt and he succeeded in taking his chance. He started 35 League Two games in their title season and continued to be the club's number one goalkeeper. At the end of the 2007–08 season in League One, Westwood was named in the PFA Team of the Year and also won all of the club's Player of the Season awards.

Coventry City

On 18 June 2008, Westwood signed a three-year contract with Championship club Coventry City for an undisclosed fee.[5] He was named in the Championship PFA Team of the Year for 2009 in his debut season at the club. He won the club's player of the year award for the 2009–10 season.[6]

Sunderland

It was confirmed on 22 June 2011 that Westwood would join Sunderland on 1 July on a free transfer. He made his first start for Sunderland on 23 August in the League Cup defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion. His first Premier League appearance came against Aston Villa on 29 October, when he was brought on to replace the injured Simon Mignolet. Westwood later denied former Sunderland striker Darren Bent a goal after the striker was through one on one, with the game level at 1–1.[7] In the following game, away to Manchester United, Westwood made a 'magnificent double save' to deny Wayne Rooney and Patrice Evra, but United won 1–0. Despite Sunderland struggling for results, which saw Steve Bruce sacked on 30 November, Westwood remained in good form. However, after missing Sunderland's 1–0 victory over Manchester City on New Year's Day 2012, Westwood found himself second choice to Mignolet for the remainder of the season.[citation needed]

Westwood remained behind Mignolet in the pecking order at the start of the 2012–13 season, with the Belgian playing in Sunderland's first two league games, although Westwood did play in Sunderland's League Cup victories over Morecambe and Milton Keynes Dons before a 1 – 0 defeat to Middlesbrough in the fourth round, a game in which Westwood also played. Following Mignolet's departure to Liverpool at the end of the season, Westwood regained his place as Sunderland's first choice keeper, with competition now coming from Vito Mannone.

At the end of 2013–14 season, he was released by the club.[8]

Sheffield Wednesday

On 7 July 2014, Westwood signed for Championship club Sheffield Wednesday on a two-year deal.[9] whereupon he was handed to coveted No.1 jersey for the forthcoming season.

His signing for the club bolstered the Goalkeeping department at Hillsborough, with former England International Chris Kirkland already on the books. As it transpired, Westwood would play all but 2 of Wednesday's league matches during 2014/15, with Kirkland relegated predominantly to Cup matches.

Westwood saved a penalty against Reading on the 20th September, meaning he had conceded only 2 of the 4 penalties he had faced in the 14/15 season.

Westwood continued his outstanding form throughout his debut season with The Owls, as his 17 clean sheets helped to equal the clubs all-time record. This included fine saves against Norwich City, Blackpool and another penalty saves versus Reading. Westwood was one of The Owls most consistent players in the league that season only missing out during his suspension following his red card against Derby County which the club appealed against but lost the appeal. And for the last 3 games Chris Kirkland played in goal following Westwoods injury in the warm up in a game at Bournemouth where he was due to start.

At the end of the Season, Westwood was named in the PFA Championship Team of the Year 2014-15, the first Sheffield Wednesday player to appear in such a team since Nigel Pearson, David Hirst and John Sheridan in 1990-91.

International career

On 17 May 2009, Westwood was called up by the Republic of Ireland to attend their training camp in Portugal[10] after impressing against Leeds United in a League One match. Three days later he played as a second-half substitute in a practice match against Portuguese club Lagos, replacing Joe Murphy after 66 minutes. On 29 May 2009, Westwood made his first appearance for Ireland in a friendly against Nigeria.[10] He played in the friendly match with South Africa in Thomond Park on 8 September 2009.[11] On 26 March 2011, Westwood made his competitive debut in a European Championship qualifier with Macedonia.[11] He made a crucial save in the closing minutes of the match.[4]

Westwood was part of the Ireland squad for UEFA Euro 2012, although he did not feature in any games. Following the retirement from internationals by Shay Given after Euro 2012, Westwood assumed the No.1 position for his country. He later lost this place to David Forde of Millwall F.C.. He made his 15th appearance for Ireland on 2 June 2013, in a 4–0 win over Georgia.

In 2015; following a number of injuries which ruled him out of previous squads, Westwood was recalled to the Starting XI for Ireland's post-season friendly fixture versus England in Dublin, Westwood was replaced in the second half by Shay Given with the scores at 0-0.

Career statistics

Club

As of match played 21 August 2013.[12]
Club Season League FA Cup League Cup Other[a] Total
Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Carlisle United 2004–05 4 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 7 0
2005–06 35 0 1 0 1 0 7 0 44 0
2006–07 46 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 48 0
2007–08 46 0 2 0 2 0 4 0 54 0
Total 131 0 4 0 4 0 14 0 153 0
Coventry City 2008–09 46 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 49 0
2009–10 44 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 46 0
2010–11 41 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 43 0
Total 131 0 7 0 0 0 0 0 138 0
Sunderland 2011–12 9 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 10 0
2012–13 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 3 0
2013–14 10 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 11 0
Total 19 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 24 0
Sheffield Wednesday 2014–15 43 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 43 0
Total 43 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 43 0
Total 324 0 11 0 9 0 14 0 358 0
a. ^ Includes other competitive competitions, including the Football League Trophy, FA Trophy & Football League play-offs

International

As of match played 13 June 2015.[13]
Republic of Ireland national team
Year Apps Goals
2009 3 0
2010 2 0
2011 3 0
2012 6 0
2013 2 0
2014 0 0
2015 1 0
Total 17 0

Honours

Carlisle United F.C.
Republic of Ireland

Individual honours

Coventry City F.C.
Carlisle United F.C.
Sheffield Wednesday F.C.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. "Westwood wins Player of the Season Award". Coventry Telegraph. 4 May 2010.
  7. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. 10.0 10.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. 11.0 11.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.Lua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).

External links

Script error: The function "top" does not exist.

Script error: The function "bottom" does not exist.

Script error: The function "top" does not exist.

Script error: The function "bottom" does not exist.