Oh dear Graeme Smith. The poor sod hasn’t exactly made the best of starts to his career at the Albion, conceding 24 goals in 632 minutes, or 8 appearances. While he’s not being helped by the shambles of a defence infront of him, there is obviously a deeper problem.

A bold statement it may be, but Smith is not a bad keeper. He can catch the ball, he can make saves, Christ, he can even kick it. But the one thing he doesn’t have is arguably the most important thing that a goalkeeper can - confidence

Last night, the back four looked like they wouldn’t have been able to organise a prayer in a mosque. Time after time, Norwich penetrated our back line, with the most concerning issue being where free header after free header happened from set pieces. It wasn’t like watching an under tens disabled team defend - it was worse. Five times Norwich had the ball in the back of the net (thank God only four counted), and five times the keeper and defence should have done better.

When a goalkeeper has confidence, he believes he will save everything and with that comes the confidence to come and dominate the box - something that we are crying out for. Smith’s lack of it means that he remains rooted to his line, unwilling to come and make a claim, and with that comes the utter shambles that has lead to us conceding seven in two games.

The fans have no confidence in Smith, and seemingly the players don’t either. It’s not hard for him to pick up on this out there, and it adversely effects him. Every goal we concede from now on is likely to have some part of the blame apportioned to our unfortunate Scotish custodian - and when the Withdean crowd decides it doesn’t like you, it really doesn’t like you.

The only answer is to drop him and loan him out - playing regular football in League One or League Two where the fans do not hold the pre-concieved opinion that he is at least part-at fault for every goal we conceded could help him get that much-needed confidence back and return to the club a compotent goalkeeper. Every game he plays from now on though is, to all intents and purposes, likely to be an utter disaster. And if he can’t get the confidence back to come in, then maybe a cutting of loses is the best way forward and add to him to the list of goalkeepers who have failed at Withdean.

While it may not be working out for Smith, it is also important to remember that Kuipers has been far from faultless this season (remember the Moan In when the general consensus was to drop the former Dutch marine in place of Smith?). The fact that both keepers have struggled indicates that it comes down to something that even Stevie Wonder can see is a massive hinderance - the back four. Sort out the defence, sort out the keepers, and maybe, just maybe, another nailbiting end to the season can be avoided