Joe Lewis on Thursday night was named the AFC Player of the Year 2018/19. The Dons number one has had another hughly impressive season.

 

Amongst his achivements this campaign, Joe recently played his 400th competitive game of his career and after doing so spoke with the Red Matchday editor. Not that he was counting!

“I knew I was coming up to that figure at some stage but I didn’t realise it was that close. These things get flagged up to me by people at the club, like my 50th clean sheet for Aberdeen was recently.

“400 games is one I am proud of. Hopefully I have many more in me because I started fairly young. I managed to get into the number one shirt at Peterborough early on, after my first real loan spell at Morecambe. I had been on loan at Stockport for five games and then when I was 19, I played 20 or 30 odd games for Morecambe and then re-established myself at Peterborough at 20 years of age.

“They had a philosophy of signing young players and I was fortunate enough to be the number one for the four and a half years I was there, so I got a good start and I’m using that experience now. I am still relatively young for a goalkeeper. At 31, I hope I have plenty more years left in me, I would love to think I could still go for another ten years. I will play as long as I am wanted and as long as I am injury free. If I could get to 40 then I would be very happy. It is a lot to do with looking after yourself and a massive amount of it is down to genetics as well.

“I do look after myself to help that. Touch wood, I’m quite fortunate with injuries – any injuries I get tend to be impact injuries after collisions. I have not had a massive amount of injuries and I think you can put that down to hard work in training and preparation. I will do all I can to keep as fit as I can for as long as I can. Without predicting too far ahead, I just want to keep playing and keeping enjoying it, but I have to keep performing, especially now with the amount of quality that there is in young lads coming through.

“There are not many number one goalkeeping positions to play for. When you get your opportunity it is important that you take it. It is so difficult for young players. I was fortunate enough that Jim Gannon gave me my first league appearance when he was manger at Stockport. He was always very keen to give young players a go. The five games I played for them was so important because I am not sure if Morecambe would have taken me if I had not played those games. I went there and did really well.

“It’s just about getting your foot in the door and being able to prove to people how good you are. No matter how good you are in training, a lot of managers want an experienced goalkeeper and everything that comes with it in matches. I am a better goalkeeper for the experience but you need someone to give you that break in the first instance. It is a risk for any manager to do that. I will always appreciate the risk that was taken with me.

“I had spells in England, especially at Peterborough, where I was not playing well and I was making mistakes and other managers would have taken me out of the team but Darren Ferguson stuck by me. You are exposed to the reality that training is one thing but playing on a Saturday in front of a crowd with team mates who have expectations of you and supporters that are demanding performances from you, that is a different thing altogether! You can’t get that experience any other way than actually being out there doing it.

“Sometimes you can be a bit impatient and you are desperate to be in the team and sometimes you can be thrown in a bit too early. But for me, I am certainly a better goalkeeper from having played that number of games when I was younger.

“We have some very good young goalkeepers at the club. They all have stacks to learn, as any young goalkeeper has, but potential wise, they are all very promising.

“When I was young, I used to watch the senior goalkeeper at the club very closely. When I was a young lad at Norwich, Robert Green was the number one goalkeeper. I used to watch him a lot and try and learn bits off him. Even now, I am still learning and I pick up bits off Tomas Cerny and use that.

“Tomas is an incredibly hard worker and a fantastic goalkeeper. Not only does that drive me on, knowing that if my standards do drop there is a goalkeeper ready to jump into my shoes, but he is very supportive and a couple of days after a game, we will have a chat about an incident or a goal conceded or circumstances that arose during the game. Nothing formal, we don’t sit down and have a meeting, but we just have a chat in training during the warm up. I think it is important that you get on well with the other goalkeepers in the squad and we have that here. We are all really close.

“I have been in the position where I am not playing regularly. You never wish an injury on anyone, but of course you want your opportunity and you want your chance. When Tomas when in, I was watching the game in the changing room on a laptop and he played really well. That is all you can do. Take your opportunities when they come.

“There are certain aspects where Tomas is better than I am and I am always looking to improve. Even some of the stuff Archie and David do, it gives you a little reminder of things. You can always learn. Hopefully I can be someone they learn from as well.

“You have to keep progressing because the game changes all the time. As a goalkeeper, being able to use your feet is so important now. I have heard stories of other clubs – I won’t name them – where managers, when they sign a goalkeeper, they are not interested in what he can do with his hands, can he come for crosses, can he stop shots? They are not interested. They are only interested in what he is like with his feet. I do find it strange but it is an indication of where things are going.

“I like to think that I’m comfortable with the ball at my feet and that always helped me as a younger player coming through because it has been coming for a long time. But now it’s starting to go to extremes. A lot of teams in all divisions are playing out from the back and playing total football.

“Goalkeepers need to be part of that 11 man team. It is not just ten outfield players and a goalie, you have to be part of the team and the way they build the play up. You are part of the attacking set up as well now, rather than just being trying to keep the ball out of the net.

“The art of shot stopping is not going out because in my view the keeper will always be judged on saving shots and keeping the ball out of the net, making the fewest mistakes and being consistent, but there are bits coming into the game where you need to be an outfield players with gloves at times.

“When I was younger at Norwich. I had Aidy Boothroyd as my youth team coach and he used to encourage me to play outfield. He was probably ahead of his time and that was so helpful for me. He wanted me to showcase my ability with the ball at my feet.

“As I got older, it almost got coached out of me at times because it is all well and good when you are playing youth team football, taking on strikers and dinking the ball over full-backs, but sometimes when you play senior football, depending upon who your manager is, the vast majority will not want you to do that. They will not want you to take risks. The vast majority want you to play percentage football.

“It’s important that when you get a young keeper who is exceptionally good with their feet, you should encourage them as much as you can. Archie is incredibly good with the ball at his feet, as good as I have seen with his distribution, and in the future will be an extremely attractive proposition for some managers with their way of thinking but I am sure if he was play in any first team, he would adapt his game slightly. You play a slightly safer game when there is more on the line.

“Glove technology has come on too, but I wouldn’t say it has made a huge difference during my time between the sticks. I was fortunate enough to have good gloves when I started. I speak to Gordon Marshall and compare what we have now with when he started. I don’t know how goalkeepers did it!

“Sometimes, you are training at the Barracks and it a freezing cold winter’s day, the sleet is coming down sideways. The pace some of the boys are striking the balls, you think, “How would I do this without gloves? How would you catch a ball from a cross without the gloves we wear now?” It is so impressive to look back and see the clips of goalkeepers catching the ball with these woollen gloves – that is the opposite of what you would want, the ball would be incredibly slippery. I don’t know how they did it. I’m just glad I have not had to experience that!”