Iwan Roberts: Angus is a chip off the old Gunn block

If I'm honest, I'm surprised it's taken this long to make the decision.

Bryan Gunn - Norwich City legend (Image: Newsquest library)

Angus is 27, he's not a young boy anymore. He has had a successful career with England Under-21s but I think if you look at the depth that England have in goalkeepers, was he ever going to play for England at full level? Probably not, if I'm being totally honest.

And you've got to have played regularly, which Angus probably hasn't done up until now. So I'm surprised it's taken him this long to commit to play for Scotland – and I'm surprised Bryan hasn't pushed him towards north of the border before as well!

I think it's the right decision for Angus, I really do. If my son Ben had become a professional footballer, I don't think he'd have taken much persuading who he wanted to play for.

Even though Ben was born in St Albans he sees himself as Welsh so it wouldn't have taken much for me to twist his arm to choose Wales. He feels Welsh, he supports Wales in whatever sport we play.

When Angus was younger, I understand him keeping his options open, especially when he's played for the U21s. But then when he got to the age of 23, 24, he might have been better making the decision earlier than he did because he'd have got a few caps by now.

Even though Scotland have had some decent keepers in recent years – like David Marshall, Allan McGregor and Craig Gordon - I think Angus would have would have had his fair share of caps.

And had he made the decision earlier, he could well have gone to the last European Championships, in 2020. 

Steve Clarke (Image: PA Images)

Steve Clarke is a good coach for Scotland and he’s taken them to a new level. They came within touching distance in their last big campaign and now they have Cyprus and Spain in the Euro qualifiers, both at Hampden Park. It will be a massive game against Spain and the place will be bouncing and you just get the feeling with the players they've got, and the coach they have got they could be turning a corner.

Bryan will be as proud as punch that Angus will hopefully follow in his footsteps, but I have to say I was surprised to see Bryan only had six caps for Scotland. He was unfortunate in that he was competing against the likes of Jim Leighton, Alan Rough and Andy Goram.

But in the early 90s, when Norwich were flying in the Premier League, it must have been one hell of a keeper to keep him out of the Scotland number one jersey.

He was coming towards the end of his career when I got to the club. I got close to Bryan and Robert Fleck, who took me under their wing. I probably didn't see the best of the best of Gunny but I tell you, he would be exceptional playing if he was today because he was also brilliant with his feet, which is such a big part of a goalkeeper's role now. Gunny’s range of passing was ridiculous.

I remember at the time we were sponsored by Colmans and Gunny said to me: ‘Robbo, don't worry, I'll always hit the Colman’s badge, I won't put it anywhere else, I won't put it too high or too low, I'll always hit the Colman logo’. And honestly, he always did.

In this modern era of goalkeeping where they play like a sweeper, they've got to be confident playing out the back and they've got to be able to kick it to the right back, to the left back, into midfield. They've got to be confident with the first touch, and Bryan was. He was exceptional in five-a-sides – you know goalkeepers, they never want to play goalie in five-a-sides, they want to be up front scoring the goals.

And coming back to today, I think the reason David Wagner is preferring Angus to Tim Krul is because he trusts Angus more with his feet. I think it's a strength of Angus. It's not easy when you’re six foot five, but he's good with the ball at his feet. Yes, he'll get caught, what goalkeeper doesn't, but he's a really competent goalkeeper when he's asked to play out with it.

Blank looks

Since David Wagner arrived at Carrow Road, his team have kept just three clean sheets in 11 games - and that’s a bit of a scary stat for me.

They even conceded on Wednesday at Huddersfield, who had gone four games without scoring.

Just as bad is their clean sheet record over the whole season – they’ve kept just nine. Take a look at who’s below them – Hull, Middlesbrough, QPR, Blackpool, Huddersfield, Reading, Wigan and Swansea.

City may well be the fifth highest scorers in the Championship, and they haven’t got the worst defensive record, but they must keep more clean sheets. Do that and, with the firepower they have, they should win games – seems daft to say it but it is fact.

Look at Southampton - dead and buried a few weeks ago and they get rid of Nathan Jones, rightly or wrongly but I thought he was treated harshly – but they went to Chelsea and won 1-0; they ground out a 1-0 home win over Leicester and they went to Old Trafford and got a 0-0 draw with Manchester United.

Last weekend City were undone by Sunderland and Tony Mowbray, an experienced enough manager who knew how to make sure his team bounced back from a horrible 5-1 home defeat to Stoke.

They came here with the game plan and they carried it out to a tee.

This Saturday they go to Stoke and their manager Alex Neil is a man who does his homework and tactically is very good.

I spoke to Hucks (Darren Huckerby) the other day and he said Alex Neil was one of the best coaches he's ever seen, a man who is meticulous in his preparation.

He did a great job here when he took over, taking the club up -  and it's always hard stay in the Premier League when you’re a club like Norwich, swimming against the tide.

He went on to Preston and got them to mid-table in the Championship, did a great job at Sunderland taking them up - a few tried and failed.

I was slightly surprised when he left to go to Stoke, but after an indifferent start they look to me like they are really finding their feet with him.