Stoke City hot prospect makes it hat-trick as loan side challenge at top

Tommy Simkin is spending the season on loan at Walsall from Stoke City.
-Credit: (Image: Ryan Browne/REX/Shutterstock)


Tommy Simkin made it a hat-trick of clean sheets in a three-game week to help Walsall briefly go top of League Two.

Keeper Simkin, like striker Nathan Lowe, also 19, at the other end, is earning rave reviews out on loan from Stoke City in their first real taste of regular league football. Simkin had been impressing out on loan at Solihull Moors in the National League at the start of last season before injuries forced an early recall under Alex Neil.

He has now played nine times for Walsall, winning six times and only losing a mid-week Carabao Cup tie against Premier League Leicester on penalties. He has marked his time with some excellent saves and bravery and kept four clean sheets in seven League Two matches. Walsall were leapfrogged by Gillingham later on Saturday afternoon but it's been a very promising start and they are now preparing to take on Charlie Adam's Fleetwood on Tuesday.

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Leicester reporter Jordan Blackwell gave us an insight into Simkin's performance in front of a sell-out crowd at the Bescot Stadium.

He said: "Possibly expecting his busiest game of the season against a Premier League outfit, that was some way from the truth, with Simkin not needing to make a save until the final 15 minutes. When he needed to be alert, he was, positioning himself well to get down to save Facundo Buonanotte's diving header. The effort was not close to either corner, but came in at pace, and from only 10 yards out and so was a decent stop from Simkin, who kept hold of the ball to prevent any rebounds being latched upon. In the shoot-out, he dived the right way twice of the three penalties he faced, but on both those occasions, Ricardo Pereira and Oli Skipp placed the ball right into the corner, beyond Simkin's reach."

Stoke's under-21s boss Ryan Shawcross, academy director Gareth Owen and youth coach Liam Lawrence have been spotted checking up on Simkin and Lowe in the opening few weeks of the season.

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