MARK Cooper has hailed Wes Foderingham as the ‘best outfield goalkeeper in the league’.

The County Ground chief heaped praise on his number one for the way he has grown into a more complete player this season and waxed lyrical over Foderingham’s role in Swindon’s progressive brand of possession football.

Cooper paid tribute to the work goalkeeping coach Steve Hale and the rest of his coaching staff have done on the training pitch with Foderingham and has no problem with the 23-year-old remaining an unsung hero outside of SN1 as the good times roll on at Swindon.

“He’s certainly recognised within the group. We’re not too worried about the external influences,” said Cooper, who also hailed the impact that reserve keeper Tyrell Belford has had on his team-mate’s development.

“We know how good he is and we know that, say on Saturday, when we have all the ball, they have a chance and Nathan makes a mistake, and he has to keep the ball out of the net without having anything to do, his concentration is key.

“I think he’s been really good this year. He’s made saves at the right times, he has improved ten-fold with his distribution.

“He’s now become the best out-field goalkeeper in the league, whereas before he wasn’t. He’s now become that with his distribution. He’s getting better.

“He works individually with the goalkeeping coach and they will look at the DVDs and bits they could have done better and Steve will talk to him about his distribution and work on it.

“And then obviously when we come in to work on the units and how we play out, we put him under pressure to play out. So the more that you practice and the more under-pressure you are, the better you’re going to get.

“Ty’s brilliant with his feet, isn’t he? And Wes’ distribution is outstanding now. He can drop it on a sixpence 90 per cent of the time.

“If we choose to flick one to Michael Smith, he drops it in. He can play between people, he can nutmeg people – he’s been outstanding.”