Interviews

Walsh: Run of clean sheets my best in a decade

Albion have won their last four WSL matches and host Everton on Sunday.

By Charlie Hanson • 23 March 2021

By Kyle Hemsley
Megan Walsh can't recall keeping three consecutive clean sheets in her professional career prior to the recent run.

Goalkeeper Megan Walsh reckons Albion's three consecutive WSL clean sheets is her best run since playing in the centre of excellence at Aston Villa.

The 26-year-old graduated from Villa's academy in 2011, going onto play for their first team before spells with Everton, Notts County and Yeovil Town. She signed for Albion in 2019.

After winning her place back for the 2-1 win at leaders Chelsea, Walsh enjoyed shut-outs in the subsequent victories over West Ham, Spurs and Villa.

03:22

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WSL Highlights: Aston Villa 0 Albion 2

“I was saying to my parents that I probably haven't kept three clean sheets in a row since I was a youth player at Aston Villa, over ten years ago!

“The goalkeeper and defence get a large amount of credit for clean sheets but it's a team effort here, everyone does their job defensively.”

Four straight wins have catapulted Albion into sixth spot, but those wins came after a really difficult spell for Hope Powell's team.

Before beating Chelsea they had gone nearly three months without a victory and conceded ten goals in their two games prior to beating the leaders.

“The catalyst was the Bristol City game which we lost 3-0,” said Walsh. “That was our chance to say it really wasn't good enough and that we have got to sort it out. We went back to working for each other and playing as a team and that's really helped us.

“At Bristol too many people didn't turn up and we recognised that as a group. You can cope with one person maybe not having the game of their life, but when you've got six or seven you're going to get badly punished and we were during that game.

By Paul Hazlewood
Megan Walsh has started all four of Albion's consecutive wins in recent weeks.

“Against Chelsea we knew it would be tough, we went into it knowing there wasn't any expectation on us to get something, but the last time we played them we only lost 1-0 and the time before that we drew, so we knew we could compete with them. We showed a real team resilience that day that we weren't going to roll over.

“For me, the win against them is on a par with when I was at Yeovil and we drew 0-0 with Arsenal, but to come from behind and win, and bring an end to their unbeaten run when nobody thought we stood a chance was brilliant.”

The keeper believes the key to extending the winning run this weekend against Everton is keeping their focus on their own performance levels.

“We've been very good in possession and got the goals we've needed to see us over the line, but we've also been defensively sound and resolute. Before the Villa game we had a goal-line clearance in each of our three previous games, and that's massive because you know someone other than me is doing their job to stop the ball going in.

“Everyone knows that they need to work for each other. We are such a tight knit group, we want to do well for the person next to us and we want to perform for each other.”