Darren Randolph may not play a lot, but when he does he rarely lets his team down.
The Bray native will forever be remembered by Irish fans for his starring role off the bench against Germany back in October.
Randolph set up Shane Long for one of the Republic of Ireland’s most famous goals and has looked cool and composed in the nets for his country since then.
Randolph has struggled for minutes at club level, but took his chance with aplomb against Liverpool yesterday in the FA Cup 4th round.
The West Ham ‘keeper kept a clean sheet and pulled off three brilliant saves in quick succession in front of the Kop.
His manager was full of praise for the 28 year old following the goalless draw, and even credited him with qualifying Ireland for Euro 2016.
Not just helping his country qualifying, but citing him as the actual key reason Ireland will be playing in France this summer.
“Randy is great and deserved to be in goal and proved again he deserves it,” Bilic said.
“He is the Republic of Ireland number one and because of him Ireland are in the European Championships so we have a great goalkeeper.”
Hammers’ first-choice ‘keeper Adrian is in Spain, as his wife is due to give birth, but Bilic had no doubts about starting Randolph.
“Adrian flew this morning to Seville. His wife’s baby delivery is due tomorrow and we wish him luck and for that to go smooth. But Randy would have been in goal anyway.”
“He was in goal against Wolves [in the third round] and we decided he would play against Liverpool and in the replay.”
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