12 1GG Monday April 4 2022 | the times
thegame
you’re behind players like that. You
have to take bits from each of them.
“I loved every minute of it [against
Tottenham]. I was 19, it was my first
taste of professional football. All
I could think about was how lucky
I was to be on the pitch with that
calibre of player. You have to take it
in your stride, though, or else it’ll
become a distraction.”
Moving to England from his home
in Co Kildare aged 17, via Shamrock
Rovers in the League of Ireland,
Bournemouth was a well-chosen
destination, a club where the route to
the senior side for young players is
well signposted. Jordan Zemura,
Jaidon Anthony and Gavin Kilkenny
are all pathway products to have
played a significant part in Parker’sseason, with only 33 goals conceded,
behind the runaway leaders, Fulham,
who have let in one goal fewer.
“Everyone has different pathways
to first-team football,” Travers says.
“For me it began on a massive high,
but it was difficult over the next two
seasons trying to break back in. It
didn’t work out. But it helps to have
done it at such a young age. Those
ups and downs help you if they
happen young.
“I’ve played with [Artur] Boruc,
[Aaron] Ramsdale, Begovic. It’s an
incredible group of high-calibre
keepers I’ve had to learn from.
Training with them and watching
them on match days, how they handle
themselves, how they prepare. You
can’t think of it as a negative whenflying saves from Dele Alli and Lucas
Moura, before a one-on-one stop
from the Brazilian where he stood up
excellently, then an expertly judged
piece of sweeping where he headed
clear outside his box. His best was a
fingertip stop from a Dele header.
Playing opposite the World Cup
winner Hugo Lloris, Travers’s display
was comfortably the better
goalkeeping performance.
The form of Asmir Begovic limited
Travers to a single appearance in the
Championship last season. Then, in
the summer, the Bosnian’s move to
Everton opened up the No 1 spot.
Travers has grabbed it with both
hands, helping to ensure that
Bournemouth have the second-
tightest defence in the division thisBy the age of 21, the Bournemouth
goalkeeper Mark Travers had scored
more goals than some outfield players
manage in a career.
His first came on his senior career
debut in August 2017, when the wind
carried a long goal kick into the net
for his loan club Weymouth against
Bishop’s Stortford. Having briefly
averaged a goal a game, it took four
more years before his second, headed
in for Bournemouth Under-21
in the Hampshire Senior Cup final
against Eastleigh in May.
Now 22, youth-team football and
loan spells are long behind him. As
Bournemouth’s undisputed No 1, he
has been the rock behind the club’s
promotion push, marshalling the Sky
Bet Championship’s second-meanest
defence in his first full season.
The team’s 2-1 win against Stoke
City in February brought him the
fans’ man-of-the-match award for
the fourth game in a row. Three of
those were victories by a single goal.
As the team have struggled to sustain
the blistering form that brought 11
wins from the first 15 games, Travers
is proving the difference as Scott
Parker’s side tick off the wins — the
latest against Bristol City on Saturday
— in the promotion countdown.
To anyone who was present at the
Vitality Stadium for his Bournemouth
debut in May 2019, it is no surprise.
Against Tottenham Hotspur in the
final weeks of the season, Travers
became the first teenager to start a
Premier League game in goal since
Joe Hart played for Manchester City
against Sheffield United in 2006,
shortly before his 20th birthday.
Bournemouth beat nine-man Spurs
1-0 with a stoppage-time goal from
Nathan Aké, but it was the 19-year-
old in goal who grabbed the headlines
in another man-of-the-match display.
While it was still 11 against 11,
Travers showed off the range of his
talents. There were two brilliant
first team this season, while the
academy graduate Sam Surridge
scored Nottingham Forest’s FA
Cup winner against Huddersfield
Town last month. Bournemouth
make sure there is room for youth to
get its chance.
Travers made his international
breakthrough in 2019, starting in a 3-1
friendly win over Bulgaria in Dublin,
and with the Ireland manager Stephen
Kenny’s past three goalkeeping
selections all aged 23 or under,
and the veteran Darren Randolph
warming West Ham United’s bench,
the No 1 shirt is up for grabs. Travers’s
rivals are the Portsmouth goalkeeper
Gavin Bazunu, 20, and Liverpool’s
Carabao Cup final hero Caoimhin
Kelleher, who is only six months older
than Travers.
As for his club form, he concedes it
is difficult to see his own progress
outside the context of his stunning
introduction against Spurs. Having
started at a point it takes most players
years to reach, a certain adjustment
has been necessary, first returning to
the Bournemouth bench, then going
out on loan to Swindon Town in
League One. This season, he
concedes, has been a surprise. But his
goals have clearly crystallised.
“When you get a taste, you want it
every week,” Travers says. “But it
didn’t happen the following season, it
was difficult to get in the team. That
game gave me a motivation, though,
that I could make it in the Premier
League. It helps to have tasted it, but
if you start thinking you’ve made it
then you’re going to get quickly
shown back to your place.
“I was forced to learn quickly, but
Bournemouth have given so many
young players this opportunity. It’s a
great pathway. If you’re young and
you do well, you’ll get your chance.
“It’s a very family-run club.
I was brought over on trial and
I was exposed to the first-team
environment. That helped give me a
push and make up my mind. They
gave me a taste of it all. It’s a lovely
place to live.
“It’s always difficult leaving family
and friends back home. My friends
were still in school. It’s hard to put all
that behind you. But I can’t not be
grateful to Bournemouth.”‘I kept out Spurs at 19, but then spent
two seasons trying to get back in team’
Bournemouth No 1 has
sights back on top flight
after assured season,
says Robert O’Connor
Travers has been a reassuring presence behind the second-tightest defence in the Championship behind the leaders FulhamJAMES MARSH/BPI/REXSteve Bruce described his team’s
performance as “unacceptable” and
said that they were playing for their
futures after their play-off hopes all
but ended on a miserable return
to Birmingham City for the West
Bromwich Albion manager.
His side failed to produce an effort
on target and it left them marooned
in 12th place, eight points off the
play-offs, with seven games left. “The
reason why we are where we are is
Bruce fury as West Brom fizzle out
because we threw in a performance
like that again, which is not
acceptable,” Bruce said. “That’s the
frustration I have, after being here for
seven or eight weeks. We go up and
down, [that is] the reason why we’re
in the middle of the pack.
“We can play really well against
Fulham and Blackburn. Then against
Bristol City we changed in the second
half. You’re always playing for your
futures. You’ve got to hit a level
if you’re playing for West Brom
in the Championship.
“It’s got to be the worst game of
football I’ve seen in a long time.”
It could have been very different
as Bruce’s side were denied a clear
penalty in the second minute, for a
handball by Marc Roberts from a long
West Brom throw-in.
Birmingham had the game’s first
effort on target in the 52nd minute,when Juninho Bacuna’s low drive flew
straight at Sam Johnstone, the West
Brom goalkeeper.
The game’s decisive moment came
when Birmingham won the penalty
20 minutes into the second half. This
time the referee did see a handball in
the box as Conor Townsend stuck out
a hand to block Onel Hernández’s
cross. Lyle Taylor confidently strolled
up and stroked the ball low to
Johnstone’s right.
West Brom introduced Andy
Carroll to try to engineer a response
but the former Newcastle United
striker could only head wide from a
Darnell Furlong throw-in, while Matt
Clarke also glanced wide.
“I’m pleased and proud,” Lee
Bowyer, Birmingham’s head coach,
said. “Thankfully we’ve stopped that
rot and it’s something the players can
be proud of.”1
Taylor 67 (pen)Birmingham West Brom
0
TIM NASH
Celtic’s 2-1 Old Firm victory at Ibrox was marred by
Rangers fans throwing glass bottles at Celtic’s
backroom staff and into Joe Hart’s penalty area, inset.
Cameron Carter-Vickers scored the winner, above.b
C