Keeper Foster's no flop says West Brom boss

Roy Hodgson reckons keeper Ben Foster has not yet “shown his skills” for West Brom - because their defence is so good.

The England international is yet to convince all Albion fans following his arrival on a season-long loan from Birmingham following their relegation to the Championship.

Foster boobed to gift Stoke a late winner and also conceded a reckless penalty at Aston Villa.

It's a far cry from the 28-year-old's star performances for Blues last term, famously winning man-of-the-match in their shock Carling Cup Final triumph over Arsenal.

And ahead of Foster facing the Gunners again this weekend, boss Hodgson insisted: “He’s not had a lot to do for us.

“In that cup final, Arsenal had a large part of the play and were bearing down on the Birmingham goal on numerous occasions.

“If you analyse Ben’s games for us this season, it has often been a situation where he has had very little to do.

“When he unfortunately made a mistake, alongside Gabriel Tamas, against Stoke, it was his first involvement or one of very few.

“Even though, last Saturday, we lost to Liverpool, he wasn’t exactly jumping around the goal making saves left, right and centre.

“It is not much more complicated that that. At the moment, we’re protecting him quite well and he not getting a chance to show his skills.

“But we’re very happy to have him and still believe that, over the 38-plus games, that he’ll be the answer to our goal-keeping situation.”

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