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Fraser Forster Deserves A Shot As England Keeper, According To Neil Lennon

Joe Hart has been benched and John Ruddy just shipped 11 goals in the space of a week as Norwich keeper. Is it time we gave Fraser Forster a shot? His manager certainly believes so.

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Mike Hewitt

Joe Hart's struggles have probably been overblown, he made a mistake for England, and then he followed that up with a mistake against Chelsea that led to the winning goal. He may not have looked as dominant, but I'm not sure he deserved to be dropped in favour of Costel Pantilimon either.

Hart's current manager Pellegrini stated:

“For the moment we must support Costel. Joe made a lot of mistakes, he knows. Not just this year, also last year. So I think for Joe it is a good moment to stop. But I am absolutely sure that working hard he will, I don’t know when, but in a moment he will return to his normal position.”

So with our number one not even playing for his domestic team at the moment, you need to look to our number two, John Ruddy. The Norwich shot-stopper has conceded 11 goals in his last two matches. A lot of that has to do with the quality in front of him, however even so, on the face of it, it's not good.

So now we keep moving down the order to Celtic stopper and England number 3, Fraser Forster who has played consistently well in the Scottish Premier League as well as the Champions League, and now Neil Lennon believeshe should be given his first cap in the upcoming friendlies against Chile and Germany, and you can't really argue with that logic

Three years ago there is no way you would have envisaged Fraser being in the England squad," said Lennon.

"But he has just improved year in and year out. I have said this to him already. I said, 'You have just got to stay in the moment now.' Just keep this form going at this level and I can't see him not being picked for one of the friendlies coming up. I think he deserves the opportunity regardless of Joe's form. I think Roy has intimated that Fraser will get an opportunity anyway.

Friendlies present the perfect opportunity to give fringe squad players a chance to impress. Fraser's current form combined with the form of Hart should equal a first cap for Celtic keeper, and if he performs as well as he has been for Celtic, it's easy to see him staking a claim to that number one jersey, if Joe Hart continues to ride the pine and John Ruddy's Norwich continue to ship goals in bunches.