Ex-Portsmouth, Reading and Leeds keeper Jamie Ashdown: David James could have been among world's best - but Kostas Chalkias was worst I ever saw

As a goalkeeper, only David James has made more appearances for Pompey in the 21st Century.

Yet Ashdown’s eight-year Fratton Park stay was blighted by first-team battles with rivals of the calibre of England’s James, Shaka Hislop, Dean Kiely, Asmir Begovic and Stephen Henderson.

On the flip side, the 39-year-old can muster no admiration for Kostas Chalkias and Sander Westerveld.

Still, last Saturday Craig MacGillivray became just the fifth keeper in almost 38 years to reach a century of Blues outings.

It’s a number which also consists of Aaron Flahavan, Hislop, James and, of course, Ashdown.

He told The News: ‘We had some really good keepers, it’s no wonder I didn’t play enough!

‘I used to get called a benchwarmer quite a lot, but I just couldn’t get into the side. Too many managers messing me about, too many good keepers coming in. Every time I got into the side, another one came out of the woodwork.

‘You’re looking at David James, Shaka Hislop, Dean Kiely and Asmir Begovic. Stephen Henderson was actually very underrated, he could have played a lot higher, probably the Premier League.

‘That’s why you have take your chances when they come. My career is over now and it’s crazy how fast it goes.

‘When you look back you think “Did I have a career? Where’s it gone? Did I actually do that?”.

‘Then there were others like Kostas Chalkias and Sander Westerveld, which the club probably wasted a lot of money on.

‘Westerveld was rubbish, while I believe Shaka recently described Chalkias as the worst keeper he ever trained with. I would agree with that! They played 13 games between and were useless.

‘I never really saw Shaka get a little annoyed with someone – then Chalkias arrived at Pompey.

‘Things like that made me and Shaka a bit closer. We were always quite close anyway because he’s friendly and, if you are friendly back, he will put an arm around you. But it was impossible with Chalkias.

‘For his first training session in January 2005, on the Friday before the Southampton game, Chalkias had just arrived and was doing all this crossing with the coach. We were like “That’s strange, why is he doing that?”.

‘I was in the team at the time, but me and Shaka weren’t sure who was playing at St Mary’s in the FA Cup. Then we saw that and couldn’t work it out. We asked Chalkias if he needed any help and he wouldn’t talk to us.

‘He ended up being selected for that game for his debut.

‘In fact, he hardly spoke to us during his whole time at Pompey, he was very difficult to communicate with – and we did try.

‘On the rare occasions he talked to us, it was quite broken English. The other Greek lad who came in, Giannis Skopelitis, was brilliant, the complete opposite. He kept his head down and worked hard and played a lot more than Chalkias.

‘The goalkeeper is not an easy role to play, you have each others’ back hopefully. You do want to play, but at the same time know you just can’t be angry at everyone. Selection is not their fault, it’s an environment where you are a team as well.

‘I’ve had my times when dropped on a Saturday morning and your reaction isn’t the best, certainly you don’t expect to be chucked on a Saturday. You’re upset, but have to cope with that.

‘Chalkias played international football, a high level, but I never really saw it. I never saw him make any decent saves. I never saw him make a good save in a game either.

‘I don’t know if it was down to him not settling in quickly enough, but his kicking wasn’t great and jumps at crosses were poorly timed. Although you have to feel sorry for someone who is chucked in and doesn’t speak brilliant English.

‘I don’t know how some managers do it. They pay a ridiculous amount of money for someone, he plays a few games and then is gone.

‘That’s what kills clubs like Pompey. You have management like that and a board of directors who think they have no choice but to bring in new players on deals like that – only to lose a considerable amount of money.

‘That first day me and Shaka saw Chalkias train, we thought “He can’t be playing, no chance, he must be number three”. Then he came straight in and we didn’t know what was going on.

‘I wasn’t playing that badly – then I was dropped from number one to number three. That was ridiculous, I couldn’t really work that one out. It was just really weird with Chalkias.’

Ashdown arrived at Fratton Park in June 2004 from Reading to provide competition for Shaka Hislop.

Although out of contract, Pompey had to pay compensation for the 23-year-old, who had made 16 first-team appearances for his home-town club.

Ashdown would end up spending eight seasons at Fratton Park, serving under eight different managers and battling with 12 goalkeepers for first-team recognition.

And his first rival was somebody he had watched while stood on Reading’s Elm Park terraces – former Royals keeper Hislop.

Ashdown added: ‘Shaka was amazing, such a calm influence to watch, although had a completely different style of goalkeeping to a lot of people.

‘You couldn’t really imitate his technique, I have never seen a style like his since. It’s difficult to explain, but you’d watch and think “How did he get away with that?”. He was so, so good, though.

‘Even my style of goalkeeping has completely changed now. I came to realise I was never coached properly, probably not until Dave Coles arrived in 2005.

‘I was barely coached at Reading. We had two years of YTS and I think we had a coach come in once a month and that was it. I was the only goalkeeper and I trained with the team, doing shooting practices. It was very odd, but I didn’t know any better.

‘Then at Pompey, Dave Coles picked up on stuff that no-one had picked up on before, such as setting for the ball. I used to jump before setting and when you look at DVDs of some of your highlights you think “Oh my God, what was I doing?”.

‘David James was the most frustrating goalkeeper to train with, put it that way. He just wanted everything his own way, he wouldn’t really let the coach coach. He was a pain.

‘Some of his performances were out of this world – and at Pompey he was so consistent. Talent-wise, it was crazy.

‘For him to play like that was pretty good to watch because you want someone to do well. Jamo is probably the best keeper the club have ever seen.

‘I think he fell on his feet at Pompey, he loved it. Everyone at the club pussyfooted around him, but did it all for good reason. If I was someone that didn’t want to train with him it would have made life difficult, so I had to do everything I could to try to make it easier.

‘Mind you, Dean Kiely didn’t like it when Jamo arrived! Dean had helped keep the team up and then got binned off. That was a bit of shock, that one.

‘Talent-wise and in terms of game performance, Jamo was definitely the best, but he was hard work, very hard work.

‘He’s a good lad, but wanted things in a different way to every other goalkeeper I ever played with. Strange things, it was always stop-start and we couldn’t get going properly in training.

‘I remember being on a running exercise with him and he probably could have beaten every player. I think he held a lot back with his fitness, he didn’t need to do it because he was naturally very fit.

‘Who knows how good he could have been, I certainly think one of the best in the world.

‘When you train with people, you get to know them and what they are capable of. With more consistency, he would have easily been England number one for a long, long time.

‘That’s what it was, consistency. In my eyes, throughout Jamo’s career he was always trying to do stuff which he didn’t need to do, in games as well.

‘He probably had it hard at Liverpool, yet at Pompey he was almost perfect.’

Ashdown was released by Pompey along with Benjani and Ricardo Rocha in the summer of 2012, with the club facing a League One existence and strangled by administration.

He had made 123 appearances, yet would play just 14 more Football League games in his career, following spells with Leeds, Crawley and Oxford United.

Then, in July 2016, the tantalising opportunity for an emotional Pompey return emerged following the return of goalkeeping coach John Keeley to Fratton Park.

Paul Cook was seeking an experienced keeper, having used five during the 2015-16 campaign, his first at the Blues helm.

However, Ashdown’s trial didn’t yield the contract he craved – and Pompey would instead sign David Forde on loan from Millwall and free agent Liam O’Brien.

Ashdown said: ‘That was a waste of time. Paul Cook didn’t even look at me, he wasn’t bothered. He just got me in to shut me up, I think.

‘I kept getting onto John Keeley to get me back: “I need to be here, I’m not going to sign for anyone else, it’s either this or nothing”.

‘I went in and trained for about two days and wasn’t even looked at. I said “Look, not for me, thank you very much” and left.

‘There was not even a discussion of “What would you be looking at? For how long?”. It was just get me in to train and then get me out as quickly as you.

‘After that, I retired on my own terms, I’d just had enough. The politics side of things was difficult to get around. I wanted to carry on, but couldn’t be doing with it.

‘But that’s football – and it all goes by in a flash.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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