Let me lay my cards on the table. I was a big fan of goalkeeper Ben Alnwick when he was playing Premier League football as a teenager at Sunderland and I've always held out hope he'd reproduce that form again...perhaps even for England's seniors one day.

It's a shame, but something went very wrong with the England U-19 international and his poor fortune on the field coincided somewhat with the Sunderland Echo's exposé of his reported off-the-field antics in December 2006.

Well, it's been pretty much disappointment after disappointment ever since and I have to say Alnwick's performance against Burnley away in the Carling Cup is one of the shakiest I've ever witnessed. I wondered, at that stage, if my confidence in the young goalkeeper was unwarranted.

Yet even now, at the age of 22, arriving at Norwich as a second-choice keeper hardly represents Alnwick's last chance saloon. However, the Spurs shot-stopper ought to benefit from three months of coaching sessions with his new boss, former Scotland goalkeeper Bryan Gunn.

Ironically though, it may Scotland's old rivals, England, that ultimately benefit if Gunn helps to get Alnwick's career back on track.

By Joe Broadfoot