Leeds United: Higgs glad of the chance to impress bossDate: 14 September 2010
However rich his resources might be, Simon Grayson does not like members of Leeds United's squad to think of themselves as peripheral.
The 41-year-old is big on the idea of inclusion and in this of all weeks, the value of spare hands should be emphasised. Three league games in seven days, including two Yorkshire derbies away from home, is the sort of congestion for which 12 summer signings were made."It's nice to have a selection problems," said Grayson. "But we're playing Saturday, Tuesday, Friday so we need as many bodies available as possible."
Grayson promotes the philosophy that every one of his footballers will have their chance to play, sooner rather than later. The exception to that rule this season was likely to be Shane Higgs, the unlucky half of a pair of goalkeepers who vied for Grayson's affection throughout the summer.
Higgs finished a close second in a straight contest with Kasper Schmeichel but second nonetheless, and he braced himself at the start of August for a long stretch on the bench.
Schmeichel's compelling performances last month served only to consolidate the goalkeeping hierarchy at Elland Road but Grayson's advice to Higgs – that he should keep himself fit, sharp and enthusiastic – was explained by his recall to United's starting side on Saturday.
An injury to Schmeichel saw Grayson turn to his second-choice keeper earlier than he might have done, and Higgs' reaction was to contribute significantly to a 2-1 victory over Swansea City.
Fitness permitting, he will start again at Barnsley this evening and once more at Doncaster Rovers on Friday night, a sequence of appearances he could not have expected a week ago.
"It's not easy to keep yourself sharp when you aren't playing," Higgs said. "You just tell yourself to work and train as hard as you can and make sure that if a chance does arrive and you are going to play,
you're ready.
"But from that point of view, you can't beat match situations. It always takes a while for you to get fully into the swing of things and it's nice to think I've got a few games ahead of me.
"This is how it goes for goalkeepers. You've got one place to play for and when you don't get it you feel hard done by. That's only natural. But there isn't too much you can do about it.
"It's good to be back in the team and hopefully when we come round to the point where (Schmeichel's) fit again, the gaffer will have a difficult decision to make."
United have not given a clear indication of when Schmeichel will
recover from a foot injury he carried through the first month of the season, but Grayson will not consider him for selection at Oakwell this evening and has no expectation of the Dane making himself available for Friday's fixture at Doncaster.
Leeds recruited cover for Higgs by signing Jason Brown, Blackburn Rovers' third-choice keeper, on a month's loan over the weekend, but it will fall to Higgs to see the club through's Schmeichel's absence.
The 33-year-old admitted towards the end of pre-season that he thought the keeper's shirt was "mine to lose" but Schmeichel was one of Leeds' most high-profile summer signings and Grayson favoured the claim of his younger alternative, naming him in his starting line-up for United's Championship game against Derby County on August 7.
"Being on the bench is difficult to get used to," Higgs said. "I started off my career doing that and when I began playing regular first-team football, I was adamant that I didn't want to go back to being a substitute.
"But circumstances change and sometimes you have to get on with it. At the start of pre-season the gaffer said we both had an equal chance of playing. All I could do was try my hardest and stake my claim but obviously I didn't do enough to start the season.
"Kasper's come in a done well and I can't really argue that he shouldn't be playing because he's not out of form or anything like that. But being selfish on my part, I want to be in the team and I want to be playing so I'll make it as difficult as I can for him to get back in. We both understand the situation and it's the manager who makes the decision, not us."
Higgs had the satisfaction of an influential performance during his first league appearance of the season, with two excellent first-half saves underpinning a second-half fightback against Swansea.
United's narrow victory saw them retain sixth place in the Championship, three points and five places better off than a Barnsley team who have also made respectable progress through the early weeks of the term.
Both of Barnsley's league victories have come at Oakwell, at the expense of Crystal Palace and Middlesbrough.
Tonight's fixture is the first of several local derbies ahead of Leeds,
and the injury affecting Schmeichel is one of few affecting Grayson's line-up.
United's manager indicated prior to Swansea's arrival at Elland Road that he would make full use of his squad this week but he may be reluctant to make widespread alterations to a team who are unbeaten in four league matches and enthused by three successive wins.
Without Higgs' interventions at critical stages of Saturday's match, Swansea would almost certainly have inflicted a first home defeat on Leeds, and the keeper said: "It's massive result for us.
"For 15 minutes or so we were right on top of them and they didn't really have a look in but they're a good footballing side. Once they got their goal, we showed a bit of form and got ourselves back into the game.
"To stay in the upper part of the table is great and we're showing at the moment that we can hold our own in this league, definitely. We'll go to Barnsley looking for another win."
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