Is Fraser Forster Celtic’s best ever keeper?

Fraser Forster’s achievement of beating Charlie Shaw’s 92-year-old League shut-out has him in the frame as a future Celtic great.

By beating Charlie Shaw’s 92-year-old League shut-out record, Fraser Forster has started fans debating who is Celtic’s best-ever goalkeeper.

Jock Stein will always be accepted as Celtic’s best-ever manager. But it’s unlikely any of the 22 goalies he signed during his 13 years in charge would even make the shortlist.

For all Stein’s genius, his one flaw was a failure to spot a keeper, something ‘Big Jock’ readily admitted to.

Many will point to Ronnie Simpson of the Lisbon Lions, but Stein actually sold him to Celtic while still manager of Hibs!

During Celtic’s nine-in-a-row title wins between 1966 and 1974, they had five different men between the posts.

As well as Simpson, the Hoops also relied on John Fallon, Denis Connaghan, Evan Williams and Ally Hunter during this halcyon spell. But none of those five ever approached Shaw’s record of 10 consecutive clean sheets.

Now Forster has overtaken his predecessor from the 1920s. But does that make him Celtic’s best No. 1 of all time?

It’s a wonderful exercise to get fans talking.

Unfortunately it’s also an imprecise practice as you’re not comparing like with like, given how much the game has changed over the years especially for goalies given the protection they receive today.

For a start, one of Shaw’s clean sheets from his record-setting season was against Rangers, something not open to Forster at present.

The big Englishman was finally capped by his country weeks before he embarked on his record run.

Yet incredibly Shaw, who captained Celtic for many seasons, was never capped by Scotland.

During his 12 years at Celtic Park, it was mainly Jimmy Brownlie of Third Lanark who played in goal for the national side.

Since Shaw, Celtic fans have been privileged to watch players of the calibre of John Thomson, John Bonnar, Pat Bonner, Rab Douglas and Artur Boruc in goal for their idols.

Even 53-times-capped Alan Rough had a seven-game stint towards the end of his career when he was signed as emergency cover in 1988.

Yet the man with the highest average for producing clean sheets is Marcus Hedman with 23 in 37 games.

The Swede is hardly in the club’s Hall of Fame, which just underlines why this debate will run and run, no matter what Forster achieves over the rest of this season.