Luke Southwood may have spent much of the last few years wondering whether he would ever get the chance to be Reading’s number one.
The Oxford-born shot-stopper has been at the club since the age of eight and shone on loan at Bath City, Eastleigh and Hamilton Academical.
He was also part of the England Under-20 squad that won the World Cup in 2017.
Yet he did not make his Royals first team debut until the age of 22, against Colchester United in the EFL Cup last year. That’s relatively late compared with other academy graduates.
Southwood went through last season as Reading’s second-choice, earning two cup outings against Luton Town but approached the expiration of his contract with his future up in the air.
Few would have blamed him for moving on in search of regular football in the summer, admitting that it just wasn’t meant to be in RG2.
Jack Stacey and Rob Dickie have done so at a similar age in recent years and gone on to have flourishing careers.
Nonetheless, Southwood signed a new two-year deal in May and made his league debut the following day against Huddersfield Town in the final game of the season.
But it was little more than rotation in a dead rubber. The 23-year-old began the new campaign still firmly as backup to Rafael.
Reading’s defensive woes at the start of the season were well-documented – 16 goals conceded in the first six matches equalled a Championship record – but it’s important to note that this wasn’t purely down to Rafael.
The Brazilian made errors, but he can hardly be blamed for the way the defence in front of him collapsed so frequently.
But when Rafael suffered a self-inflicted injury to his hand, Southwood took his chance with both of his own hands – and he has not looked back.
Firstly, you can measure the academy graduate’s impact by the stats. In six games, he has conceded just three goals and kept Reading’s first three clean sheets of the season.
Again, it wouldn’t necessarily be fair on Rafael to say that these numbers are solely down to the change of goalkeeper.
It’s also thanks to the rest of the team becoming more solid, particularly due to the introduction of Danny Drinkwater and more recently Scott Dann.
The other metric, and in many ways the more valuable one, to rate Southwood on is simply what we are seeing every game: a goalkeeper who looks assured in himself and comfortable at this level, despite this being his first run of games in the Championship.
There’s no nervy moments with Southwood – which is rare for someone who in truth is still a rookie – and he has proved his shot-stopping ability with several impressive saves.
He’s also very vocal and excellent at organising the defence in front of him, again highlighting his own self-belief.
Rafael is back from injury but the number one shirt is undoubtedly now Southwood’s to lose. All those years waiting in the wings are finally paying off.
By Olly Allen
