Craig Bellamy defends selection of non-league goalkeeper for Wales

Wales boss Craig Bellamy has defended his decision to pluck Joe Duncan out of the National League by insisting goalkeepers “have to start somewhere”.

Bellamy raised eyebrows by calling up 20-year-old Southend stopper Duncan, who is currently on loan from Bristol City, for upcoming Nations League fixtures with Norway and Portugal.

But England number one Jordan Pickford and Premier League winner David Raya both played in the fifth tier of English football at the start of their careers.

Pickford had spells at Alfreton and Darlington during his time at Sunderland, while Arsenal goalkeeper Raya made his senior debut for Southport aged 19 when on loan from Blackburn.

Bellamy said: “You have to start somewhere as a goalkeeper, you have to learn your trade and earn your stripes.

“I love goalkeepers playing lower league, especially development goalkeepers, the ones who are looking to push through, because they (lower- and non-league players) are going to bump you and ask questions of you.

“Maybe you get over-protected the higher you go but in those leagues, I think we quite enjoy watching those games because you’re not getting anything.

“It’s perfect, the way I see it, for a young goalkeeper.”

Duncan has previously been in the Jamaica set-up and joined a senior Reggae Boyz training camp in London this summer.

He has committed to Wales for now after impressing under Bellamy’s former Newcastle team-mate Kieron Dyer at Southend – and Bellamy recently saw Duncan in National League action at Worthing.

Duncan’s call-up means he will join fellow goalkeepers Karl Darlow, of Manchester United, and Wrexham’s Danny Ward as Wales attempt to stop Erling Haaland’s Norway in Oslo on Saturday.

Bellamy said this week “both our goalkeepers are old” – Darlow is 36 and Ward 33 – and the Football Association of Wales recently launched an academy goalkeeper coach development and talent ID programme to address the issue.

“Look at where the greatest goalkeeper ever, Neville Southall, started,” Bellamy said of the former Wales number one, who began his career in the Welsh system and played for Winsford and Bury before making it to Everton.

“There’s been one or two goalkeepers we really like, but they haven’t quite progressed, one or two injuries as well. Kit Margetson went to Manchester United, but unfortunately he’s had a knee injury.

“It’s just an area where we’re lacking at the moment. We don’t have a middle ground.

“We don’t have an amber where someone’s 25, 26, 27, playing a real good level.

“We have reds, someone in their 30s, and then it goes straight to green, which is young, promising and hopefully up and coming. There are gaps there, we have to accelerate it.”