Opinion: Nicholls sets the standard

Last updated : 31 October 2013 By Paul Farrington

The England under 20 international goalkeeper had just twenty short minutes to compose his mind and prepare to face Charlton inthe Championship, making his senior debut for the Latics in the process.

One hundred and eighty minutes later and Nicholls is in proud possession of two well deserved clean sheets.

The first came after a tough first half down in London as charlton had the better chances of the first half, whilst the second came against promotion chasing QPR at the DW Stadium.

Both shut outs are a credit to the youngsters performances between the sticks and should his performances continue in this vein the former England number one, Scott Carson, will have trouble getting back into the starting line up.

And it wasn't jsut the clean sheets that were impressive. Nicholls, who spent last season on loan with Northampton Town, was confident under crosses against QPR.

Clearly out to unsettle the youngster, Harry Redknapp had ordered his side to pepper Nicholls with crosses right under his crossbar from set pieces.

The plan back fired as Nicholls calmly plucked each one out of the air before launching the Latics onto the attack with his distribution.

And therin lies another fine attribute. Each kick Nicholls fired out, either from the ground or out his hands, was fired low and long helping the strikers control and making it hard to defend.

Although two points from the last two are disappointing in the frame of our season the performance of Lee Nicholls in goal is very exciting for the future.

If his last two performances are anything to go by we could well have found our new number one for the next few seasons.