Southampton: Saints goalkeeper perfects shot-stopping skills in his garden

Southampton goalkeeper Alex McCarthy is one of the Saints players training at home during the current Coronavirus suspension.

However, that clearly hasn’t stopped him from practising his shot-stopping in the best possible way – with a little help from his family.

McCarthy posted a video to his Twitter account yesterday that showed him set up facing a machine that goalkeepers use in their training to simulate shots that they may face during a game.

A football is fed into the machine and the ball flies towards McCarthy at a decent rate, forcing the Saints man to show good reactions to leap to his right and make a claim.

With Ralph Hasenhuttl’s current number one looking to be in top form still, it is possible that he is carrying on his form from the last time Saints played a Premier League game.

Saints lost their last game against Newcastle by 1-0 but McCarthy put in one of his best performances since joining the club.

More from Saints Marching

• Grading the Southampton Transfer Window Part 2: Arrivals
• Grading the Southampton Transfer Window Part 1: Departures
• It’s time to talk about Gavin Bazunu
• Rain clouds on the horizon? Southampton beat Plymouth Argyle
• A lament for Southampton legend James Ward-Prowse

A number of vital saves, including a strong arm to keep Matt Ritchie’s penalty out, kept his side in the game after the hosts at St Mary’s had gone down to 10 men and could have secured at least a draw on another day.

The 30-year-old’s showing also emphasised how difficult it can be for a goalkeeper at times when they are often exposed.

Just a week earlier he had made a bad mistake against West Ham to gift the Hammers a goal, but then redeemed himself ten-fold with Saints up against it versus Newcastle.

McCarthy is also going to provide Saints fans with a taste of what being a footballer is like at the moment too after taking up a column with the Daily Echo.

For him and his teammates, the situation is sure to be strange given that they normally spend most of their time with their fellow colleagues.

They are obviously not allowed to train as a group at the moment and will have to get used to completing training exercises on their own, but it is likely to provide comfort for all that they are having more time with their families at the moment.