Shrewsbury keeper can bounce back says Michael Appleton
Michael Appleton will ensure goalkeeper Jamal Blackman stays positive with the Shrewsbury head coach confident he can bounce back after a couple of mistakes.
The keeper has made 22 League One starts since he was first signed by Salop back in December.
The 31-year-old has had some good games in a Town shirt, and he made a positive contribution at first - which led to the keeper being awarded a contract until the end of the season.
But Blackman has made a couple of costly errors of late. He gave the ball away against Cambridge last weekend in the 1-0 defeat, and he allowed Lewis Wing's tame shot to creep under him in the 3-1 home loss to Reading on Tuesday evening.
And Appleton says his keeper will have experienced this many times before.
"He's a pretty experienced goalkeeper," the boss said. "It's not as if he's a kid anymore.
"He's had a lot of football, and he has been at a lot of football clubs. He would have had moments like this before.
"We'll try and make sure that he stays positive and he's able to sort of bounce back and deal with his situation.
"From what I've seen from a character point of view in a short space of time, I think he's more than capable of doing that."
During his time in Shropshire, the towering keeper has kept three clean sheets and conceded 31 goals.
The six-foot-six shot-stopper will get an immediate chance to put those mistakes to bed with his side making the trip to Lincoln this weekend to take on the Imps.
They drew 2-2 last time out against Charlton and have been in mixed form themselves under Michael Skubala.
One of Blackman's clean sheets since his arrival in Shropshire came against Lincoln earlier in the campaign when Town won 1-0 thanks to Morgan Feeney's ninth-minute goal.
