What will Allsop's future be?

I was surprised and yet eager to see how Ryan Allsop would do when he stepped out on a Portsmouth kit for the play-off game at Fratton Park last Friday. The game did not start off that well for him when he failed to come for and make a cross that led to the Argyle equaliser. He is out of contract this June so what a shop window he has in this second leg of the semi-final and a possible further game after that.

Ryan Allsop can gain big match experience if he can help Pompey get to Wembley.

Having been on loan at Wycombe and Coventry in the last couple of seasons AFCB have not seen too much of Ryan. Keepers are a funny mad lot and you wonder what posses them to take up the challenge. They have to be a confident person in my book and perhaps even feel self important and I wonder whether Ryan has that in his locker? Rocky as his nickname would suggest that he is made of something more solid than his performances in an AFCB shirt, but keepers mature with age they say and I wonder how much time is required before a goalie really feels comfortable with the job he carries out every week. 

For me Ryan still has a long way to go and how long he is kept in the wings at AFCB is something that the staff will be monitoring all the time. I would expect another long loan-spell for him next season and while he has played a few minutes in the Everton home match to open his Premier League record you can't see any easy way for him to jump many places with international keepers ahead of him. 

To get a move to another club may not be on his wish list but if he could play regularly he would be more in line to up his profile. It can't be easy though belonging to a club that has you going out on loan for long periods and yet it is the only way he'll learn the game and gain in confidence. It's sink or swim I guess and putting together a series of consistent performances is what everyone wants to see. So when I saw the first match that Ryan played for Pompey I felt a bit sad for him that he came in at the last moment and didn't have the best of matches. I hoped he'd put that right in the next game which is this Sunday to become a hero and get himself and Portsmouth to Wembley. Such chances don't come along often. It's these chances that players just have to grab.