Earps' England understudy Khiara Keating on how she overcame setback

22 December 2023 , 09:36

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Khiara Keating is England's No.2 goalkeeper this season

Khiara Keating has revealed how she overcame a critical mistake in Manchester City's November loss to Arsenal.

The 19-year-old who is establishing herself as England's No.2 stopper behind newly crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year Mary Earps, has played every league game for City this season.

But Keating has also had to deal with setbacks, suffering her first major blip last month when two errors proved hugely costly in a 2-1 defeat to fellow title rivals Arsenal. A poor clearance resulted in Steph Catley's first goal for the Gunners, before City got back to 1-1.

In the final minutes, Keating terribly misjudged a long punt down field from Katie McCabe, giving Stina Blackstenius the chance to square the ball into an empty net and win the game. The young Lionesses star was in tears after the game but says the incident provided a "big lesson."

"Afterwards, I needed to be around my family," Keating told The Athletic. "I switched off from the world and my phone for about two days — I’d rather not see the comments.

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"At that moment, you don’t have time to just go and hug your mum. I tried to forget about it as quickly as possible. I thought, ‘It’s going to die down at some point’.

"It was a big lesson for me on and off the pitch. Everyone is going to make mistakes. No one’s perfect. When it first happened, I thought the world was about to end but it was all right."

Since the Arsenal loss, Keating has helped City return to form with Gareth Taylor's side moving second in the table, just three points behind Chelsea. This included a 3-1 win in the first Manchester derby to be played at Old Trafford, with Keating outshining opposite number and England colleague Mary Earps, on the night.

Keating is consoled by teammates after the Arsenal defeat

Having already been called up for two England squads so far this season, Keating is enjoying the chance to train and work with Earps, with a view to one day taking her place in the team. If she does so, Keating would become the first goalkeeper from an ethnic minority background to play for the England senior women’s team.

"Mary’s lovely," Keating added. "She says I’m like her annoying little sister. (During training), I’ll just put it top bins for the sake of going top bins and she’ll come and jump on me. Next time, she tries to chip me, but I don’t let her live an easy life."

"I don’t always think about it (playing for England) but it’s in the back of my mind that I’m making history. If I were to come on, I’d be inspiring more ethnic minorities to play football, that they can do it too."

But she also revealed she nearly missed the initial call from Sarina Wiegman, when the Dutch coach selected her for national duty for the first time.

"I was outside in the garden playing with my sister," added Keating. "So I missed the call from Sarina. When I saw the message and missed call I thought I should call her back. I called her and she was very straightforward. My mum cried when I told her."

Jack Lacey-Hatton