Highly-praised Peterborough United goalkeeper on why results are more important than performances and on standing up to the League One bullies
Peterborough United goalkeeper Alex Bass has received plenty of praise from on high in recent days.
His man-of-the-match display in last weekend’s 1-0 win at Burton Albion led to manager Darren Ferguson waxing lyrical about his summer signing.
And Posh chairman Darragh MacAnthony said, on the latest edition of his ‘Hard Truth’ podcast, Bass was the best goalkeeper he’d signed in his near 20 years at the club.
Bass (27) takes the praise in his stride. His focus is on helping Posh climb away from the relegation zone. They are currently three points and three places from safety ahead of a big game against the only team below them, Blackpool, at the Weston Homes Stadium on Saturday (3pm kick off).
"We openly said we we weren’t happy with the way we played at Burton,” Bass said on the Posh Plus service. “But only positive results, not performances will get you moving up the table.
"We’ve had a tough start to the season, but there is still a lot of football to be played and we must make sure we do better than we did the first time we played against some of the teams. It’s about looking forwards rather than backwards.
"Teams will finish where they should finish and if we keep progressing and building up our form in one or two months time we could be away from the bottom four. Even after Saturday things could look a lot rosier for us if we play well and win.
"As a defensive unit keeping a clean sheet at Burton was pleasing. We knew how they would play. They get the ball wide and cross it into the penalty area, and they also throw the ball in there. Tom Lees and the rest of the defenders coped so well with everything, it actually made my life a lot easier.
"Every team seems to have a long throw man now. They have become as important as corners. We had a mindset of winning the first header and trying to clear the ball as long as possible, while also keeping the ball in play so they couldn’t just send the ball back into our box. It’s about being brave, winning headers and competing. We must show teams we won’t be beaten up and we can deal with long balls.”
After the win at Burton Ferguson said: “Alex is just so calm when it goes anywhere near him in the box. You just feel that there will never be any danger from a ball that goes anywhere near him.
"Away from home, when teams are just putting the ball in the box and you have a keeper that keeps coming and claiming it, it kills them. He was a real positive.”