Saves and impressive delivery – What David Stockdale brings to Sheffield Wednesday and how he compares

The 36-year-old has been there, done that, in his career over the years, playing at every level in the English Football League and winning promotion on three occasions at three clubs.

Now, having come on board to try and make it four as he teams up with Darren Moore, we took a look at how the experienced shot-stopper compared to Wednesday’s keeper last season, Bailey Peacock-Farrell, and the player who he’ll be battling it out with next season, Cameron Dawson.

Stockdale may be the oldest of the trio - by at least a decade - but he was the one who featured in the most games last season, playing every single minute of their League One campaign - and 52 matches in total. Dawson played 50 in all competitions, and Peacock-Farrell played 47.

In terms of clean sheets, ‘Stocko’ and ‘Cam’ were joint with 18 each, though the former won the Golden Glove in the third tier. BPF picked up 15.

Dawson conceded the fewest goals (40), with Stockdale conceding 51 and Peacock-Farrell conceding 47 - though one of the three was considerably busier than the others.

Stockdale made a total of 147 saves in his league campaign in 2021/22 - 37 more than BPF and 43 more than Dawson - and also made the most inside the penalty area with 73 (compared to 65 and 64).

But while the saving stats may not come as too much of a shock, one element that many maybe wouldn’t have given Stockdale an upper hand on is delivery…

Though BPF made substantially more short accurate passes (535 - 98.7%), Stockdale racked up 1560 passes in total (BPF 1307, CD 1131).

Dawson had the best short passing accuracy with 100% over the course of the season, though it was from a considerably smaller number compared to BPF and Stockdale (133 - 97%).

Wednesday’s new keeper also topped the charts with accurate long balls (593) with almost double the other two, managed seven key passes compared to three from BPF and none from Dawson, and made the most clearances (46) in comparison to 43 from BPF and 36 from his new teammate.

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