Fire in Hamer's belly still burning strong with Watford

Nor is help from an analyst with information of who might step up to take a spot kick, and with every match filmed these days it is relatively easy to watch old games back to see who puts the ball where from 12 yards.

However, when Ben Hamer was preparing to face the penalty Watford conceded at Hull on December 2, he had the benefit of none of those.

Although the 36-year-old keeper had done his homework, the Tigers threw him a curveball that rendered all his prep useless.

“There were two or three different penalty takers, so I had watched those take penalties,” he said.

“Every morning before every game I spend time watching the opposition free kicks and penalties, so I can get the gist of what they like to do.

“But then in that game at Hull, Philogene took the penalty and he hadn’t taken penalties so I’d not been able to watch any clips.

“Once I saw it was him stepping up, I knew I’d not seen anything to go on, so it had to be based on his body language.”

Of course, Hamer worked out correctly and dived away to his right to prevent Hull going 2-1 up.

“Those are the big moments you have to produce when you get an opportunity, and for me that was a big moment,” he recalled.

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“It was big for me, but it was also big in that game as obviously we went on to win it when Wes scored his worldie.

“That game could have gone either way, but luckily I saved the penalty. You have to be ready to make those big moments count, and keep producing when you’re called upon.”

That was only Hamer’s fourth league start for the Hornets since signing from Swansea City in summer 2022.

He played one game last season, replaced the suspended Dan Bachmann for the 5-0 home win over Rotherham and was then back in the team for the home win over Norwich before the game on Humberside.

“It was a long gap between games, and the Rotherham game was actually the perfect match to come into,” he said.

“We were very well drilled that day, won the game comfortably and I think I only had one real save to make.

“It was a nice game to work myself back into things. Then Dan came back, got sent off, and after that things have changed and I’m in the team.”

Indeed, Hamer has started in the last 10 league games and tasted defeat just once against Bristol City.

He’s keeping Bachmann out of the team, which could be awkward if the pair didn’t get along as well as they do. They travel to and from training together, and are allies rather than enemies.

Celebrating the win at Blackburn. (Image: Action Images)

“We’re friends away from the pitch, and that always helps,” said Hamer.

“I’ve always got on well with the other keepers I’ve worked with. Me and Dan live in the same sort of area, and I think within two days of me being here we were playing golf together.

“The goalkeeper department is good like that. You know how it is, you know only one of you can play, and it’s not anyone’s fault who is picked and who isn’t.

“When Dan was in the team I was always pushing him to do well, and I was really happy for him.

“In the summer he signed the new contract and the gaffer said he was the first choice, and I was completely fine with that.

“We all know Dan is a brilliant goalkeeper, and arguably a better shot stopper than me.

“In football things can change quickly, and now it’s me in the team because in the manager’s eyes I did well enough to keep my place.

“The gaffer has been really good by giving me a fair crack of the whip, and I’ve still got the fire in my belly that drives me to play at this level.

“I’ve felt really good energy from the supporters at games since I’ve been in the team too.”

Both the keepers are part of Valerien Ismael’s senior group of players, and one of their tasks in the summer was to draw up rules for the playing squad, and punishments should they break them.

Uncomfortably for Hamer, on September 23 he became the second player to be punished for bad timekeeping when he was dropped from the bench for the game at Leeds.

“I support the rules 100%, and it was a genuine mistake that I haven’t repeated,” he said.

“The gaffer left me out of the squad, I know the rules and I was perfectly fine with it.

“I did a team talk in front of the lads and apologised for being late, and then I moved on from it.

“There was never an issue. I was in the wrong.”

Of course, as a goalkeeper, any errors Hamer makes on the pitch are instantly in the public domain, and stay there for some time thanks to social media and YouTube.

“I was still making big mistakes at 27/28, and even now mistakes can happen. You’re always learning.

“Players don’t go out on the pitch trying to make mistakes, and unfortunately as a keeper if you make one slight error it’s generally a goal.

“That’s part of the territory – we know that strikers can miss an open goal but five minutes later score and be the hero.

“As a keeper, if you make a big error there’s no hiding place. It hangs around for weeks sometimes and people talk about it.

“My Dad has got a Google alert set on my name, and he said if anything comes through as a video it will almost always be a video of an error I’ve made.

“The negatives are always the things that are highlighted with keepers, and it can follow you around.

“If I face 100 shots, I’m bound to make one mistake at least. You can’t be perfect. Then it comes to how you deal with it mentally, and you have to be strong which is how you get through it.”

As errors had entered our discussion, it seemed a fair time to ask what happened for Coventry’s first goal in last season’s 2-2 away draw.

Hamer had stepped in for the suspended Bachmann and Watford were leading 2-0 when, 13 minutes into the second half, Hamer appeared to ‘escort’ the ball into the net as Coventry made it 2-1.

“It was a really swirling wind that day, and I’m not going to blame that because as a professional I should be taking that into consideration,” he admitted.

“It was Matt Godden who scored, and I spoke to him afterwards and he said the shot was going wide but the wind took it in.

“When the ball left his foot it started out so wide outside the goal, that I was confident it was wide of the post.

“But because he didn’t hit it with that much pace and almost floated it, the curl and the wind has taken it in.

“I’ve gone to usher the ball out because I’m convinced it was going wide. If I had stood still and made no movement, people would have said it was a really good finish.

“Because I’ve gone to usher it wide, I made it look ten times worse. I’d only come in for that one game, and I had no opportunity to put that right.

“So it followed me around a bit and that’s what people remember you for.”

Being in the team for one game, making a mistake and then being out of the team could lead some keepers to suffer a drop in morale.

“I don’t mull things over nowadays, because with experience I have learned to move on,” said Hamer.

A 20-year-old Ben Hamer at Brentford. (Image: Action Images)

“When I was younger, even up until about 30, I’d take those things home with me in my head and it would ruin my weekend.

“I was my own biggest critic and I’d beat myself up about things.

“As you get older, you learn how to let things go. It’s happened, you can’t change it. Beating yourself up for two weeks isn’t going to alter that you made an error.

“I remember when I was at Swansea, Steve Cooper came back as manager of Forest. He wanted to win coming back to his old club, and our manager Russell Martin wanted to beat Cooper.

“I made a big mistake at 1-1, and it cost us the game. I went in afterwards and apologised to the lads, went out for a few drinks and got over it.

“There was no point me mulling it over for days on end because it wasn’t going to change what had happened.”

Hamer has experienced first-hand the wrath of supporters when things haven’t gone well for him.

“I used to get a lot of abuse, yeah, especially in the first half of the season in the Premier League at Huddersfield. That was really bad.

“We were beaten heavily by Chelsea and Man City in the first two games, and then I got injured in the third game with Cardiff.

“I got really badly abused on social media, and the fans obviously didn’t want me in goal.

“But I went away for a year on loan, came back and things completely changed because my performances were a lot better.

“For whatever reason, I just didn’t perform in that Premier League season. I wasn’t good enough, which was the case for a lot of the players, but as the keeper you often bear the brunt of it.”

Is it acceptable that footballers, like so many other high-profile professions, are abused so publicly and often in such extreme ways?

“The fans pay their money, don’t they?” Hamer said.

“Personally, I can handle it now, but some younger players probably don’t.

“You can’t eradicate abuse, it’s going to happen. So either don’t read it in the first place to protect yourself from it – I only let people I follow comment on my Instagram posts for instance – or find a way of being able to handle it.

“I’m out there doing my job to the best of my ability so I’m not going to subject myself to abuse, which is why I took the steps I did on Instagram.”

Hamer admitted that, as a young player, he couldn’t readily ignore the haters.

“I let it get the better of me at Huddersfield. I was going on Twitter and committing the cardinal sin of clicking on my mentions, and it was just abuse after abuse.

“I was addicted really. I had to read it. But now, I don’t care what people think of me, and I think that comes with age.

“When you’re younger you want to impress people and you want to be liked. As you get older, you accept you can’t make everybody happy.

“As a younger player I’d have a bite back on social media, but you’re never going to win. You’ll end up in trouble and probably get fined.

“I knew I didn’t like it, so I turned the comments off so that people I don’t know can’t say things that might affect me.”

In action for Exeter in 2011. (Image: Action Images)

The keeper admits he has seen virtually nothing written or said about him on social media since he moved to Vicarage Road.

“I’ve no idea what fans here at Watford have said about me because I can’t see it. That means I avoid the abuse, but it also means I never see the good comments.

“Hopefully at the moment what fans are saying is quite positive, but I know I’m only one bad game away from that flipping around the other way.

“You always get good and bad comments, but as a player and a person I believe you have to stay in the middle: don’t get too high when people are speaking well of you, but don’t get too low when you’re getting bad comments.

“In the last five years I’ve become more comfortable in my own skin. If I’m playing well then that’s great, but I don’t get carried away by it.”

If Hamer had been reading comments on his performances over the last few weeks, he would have seen that Hornets fans have hailed him as one of the catalysts for the improved run of performances and form.

Some of the saves he has made in games have been breathtaking, others have been vital, and many have been both.

On Sunday at QPR, for example, he denied the home side’s giant striker Sinclair Armstrong giving them the lead only seconds after half time.

“We’d just come out for the second half and generally when it’s you kicking off, you don’t give away a chance in 10 seconds!

“I thought Sierralta was fouled to be honest, but anyway Armstrong has come through and tried to whip it into the corner and I managed to get a big hand to it.

“Those are the moments where you have to be alive and make the save for your team.”

Then, in stoppage time, he denied Jimmy Dunne what looked set to be an equaliser.

“I was really unsighted. It was just a bit of experience that helped me there.

“I felt I had the left side of the goal covered, and I did see a gap between Wes and their striker, and I instinctively thought Dunne would try to whip it into the other corner.

“I didn’t see the ball until I think Dykes moved out of the way. It was a bit of luck and a bit of experience I guess, knowing where the ball might go.”

Of the saves he has made since coming into the team, which does he regard as his best?

“That would be a save I made quite early on in the game at Preston.

“Technically it was a good save, but also had we gone 1-0 down early on who knows what would have happened. Obviously we ended up winning 5-1 but conceding early can change everything.

“It was a header from Osmajic, but I was adjusting back onto my line and I had to push off my left side quite high.

“It was an awkward save to make, and probably my best one technically. I actually think Preston away was my best performance too, as I was quite busy and I had to make saves in the first half, and then again after we had gone 2-1 up.”

Being a Watford goalkeeper in the style of play that Ismael has adopted means your boots see as much as of the ball as your gloves.

“I love the ball at my feet, and I always have,” said Hamer.

“I had Brendan Rodgers as my Academy manager when I was 16/17, and then he came back as first-team manager at Reading and he was always very pro playing out from the back.

“Then I worked with Carlos Corberan at Huddersfield and he played that way, and then there was Russell Martin and Luke Williams at Swansea and those two made sure you were confident with the ball at your feet.

Hamer in action for Huddersfield.

“I wasn’t really allowed to kick the ball long under Martin, unless I didn’t get pressed and everyone stayed back man for man.”

There are times when the opposition press gets so close to nicking the ball that you can almost hear the gasps among the Watford fans.

“That’s the whole point of how we play – you’ve got to engage the striker. You want him to be about a yard away from you before you pass the ball.

“If a striker is pressing me from my right, I know my right centre half is going to be in space because the striker has left him to come and shut me down.

“Then a midfielder comes in, I can lay it off to him and he can play to the right centre half, and we’re off.

“There is method to what we do. I don’t get worried about it, but I guess supporters don’t always understand that is our intention.

“I’ve always loved playing out from the back, but it takes a lot of work and a lot of training to know each other on the pitch and understand the chemistry.”

• Part two of this interview with Ben Hamer will be online tomorrow (Friday) morning.