MARK WARBURTON, the Rangers manager, tipped Wes Foderingham as a possible future England international after the goalkeeper was instrumental in his side recording their 11th SPFL Championship victory in a row. A first-half goal from Jason Holt would ultimately prove the difference between Rangers and St Mirren, with the Paisley side thwarted on numerous occasions by the athletic Foderingham who pulled off impressive saves from Scott Agnew and Stephen Mallan in particular. The 24 year-old Englishman endured something of a peripatetic career prior to joining Rangers in the summer, having stints at fairly unglamorous non-league clubs like Bromley, Boreham Wood and Histon, but Warburton believes there is still a lot more to come from his number one.
“He is a first-class keeper,” he said. “I’ve seen him many times down south. He played 175 league games as a young keeper and he’s only 24 years old. We are demanding of Wes to play with his feet - really challenging him every single day - and you saw the quality we displayed again today. He has been first class and I think Wes has the capability to go to a higher level.
“I don’t mean that in terms of his club, but in terms of how far he can go in the game. I think he could be [an international goalkeeper]. You look at him; his distribution, his shape, he comes for crosses, he is assured, he dominates his area. He kicks so well off of both feet and you saw his quality at basic shot-stopping as well.”
It was not as good an afternoon for his opposite number, with Jamie Langfield allowing Holt’s shot to sail past him from a narrow angle. The St Mirren goalkeeper was honest enough to admit his mistake, although had he “held his hands up” at the time there was every chance he would have earned his team a point.
“Being on the coaching side now, I tell our goalkeepers to go for the ball every time,” he revealed. “But I didn’t practice what I preach. I thought it was going wide and that’s why I didn’t dive.
“He cut across the ball and I just didn’t think it was on target, but having seen it back I need to do better. I’m first to hold up my hands and admit that. It was the defining moment in the game and it’s cost us.”
His manager, though, was not overly despondent given how well St Mirren played over the 90 minutes.
“It was a decent performance from us,” said Ian Murray. “The tempo and the intensity were excellent and with a bit of better quality in the final third we could maybe have scored a couple.
“I told the players that the challenge is to maintain that standard. It’s great playing against Rangers live on television and getting all the plaudits but when we play Alloa, Morton, Raith and Queens we have to keep that up. We just need to add a bit more quality which will come the longer we go into the season. If we can do that we’ll not be too far away.”
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