Given the clear areas Plymouth Argyle needed to strengthen this summer, one of the strangest sagas surrounded the position of backup goalkeeper. Archie Mair was strongly linked with a move, before it was confirmed that American ‘keeper Tyler Miller had been taken on trial. But neither signed, and Luca Ashby-Hammond was taken as part of the squad on the recent tour of Austria. Eventually, Ashby-Hammond was officially announced as a signing last week.
Ashby-Hammond started his career at Fulham, and was available this summer following the expiry of his contract at Craven Cottage. He never made a first-team appearance, and is best known for loan spells across various levels at (deep breath) Harrow Borough, Stockport County, Aldershot Town, Crawley Town, Notts County, Gillingham and, strangely, Liverpool. I assume the latter was directly from the “Andy Kellett to Manchester United” playbook.
Backup goalkeepers aren’t exactly the most glamorous to analyse. After all, their primary objective by design is expected to be on the bench. However, as somebody who once wrote an analysis piece on Marko Marosi, I’m certainly keen to have a look. Conor Hazard was once expected to be available for the Bristol City friendly but, with the Northern Irishman still on the sidelines and injury prone in general, Ashby-Hammond will inevitably have a part to play in competitive action.
A career snapshot
Ashby-Hammond’s career has taken a similar trajectory to his older brother, Taye, who currently lines up for Stevenage. Both were in the youth ranks at Fulham, and both had a series of loan moves before securing a permanent deal at a League One club. Unlike his brother though, Luca has played for England at every youth level up to under-20. Neil Dewsnip eat your heart out.
Aside from his stint at Liverpool, which upon further research was an emergency loan for an FA Youth Cup game, Ashby-Hammond’s loan spells have seen him gradually climb the footballing pyramid. His first senior loan at Harrow saw him play in the seventh tier of English football and, whilst he didn’t actually make an appearance for Stockport, he was a near ever-present in the National League for Aldershot in 2022/23.
His last three spells have all been at League Two level, and it’d probably be fair to say he’s been brought in as a backup on all three occasions. Ashby-Hammond played seven league games for Crawley, 11 for Notts County and just the one as a substitute for Gillingham last season.
If we add in the League Cup appearance he made for Crawley, Ashby Hammond has played 20 games at EFL level. That may not seem a great deal, but they are the only games he’s played in his career for which goalkeeping stats are readily available. We’ll be using those as the basis for our numbers across the remainder of this piece.
Given Ashby-Hammond has gone from National League starter, to League Two backup and now to a League One backup, it may not be unreasonable to claim he’s fallen upwards. That’s particularly true when you consider the careers Marosi, Hazard and Callum Burton had before arriving at Argyle as second choice. One key factor in Ashby-Hammond’s favour, however, is that he is only 24. It’s young for a goalkeeper, and he has plenty of room to build on his short professional career to date.
Shot stopping
As I mentioned, Ashby-Hammond has made 20 senior appearances for which full stats are available. And that’s actually a decent sample size for the comparisons we want to make. Last season, Dan Grimshaw made 21 league appearances for Argyle, whilst Hazard made 25. They’re all similar, and it makes comparisons between the three easier to stomach, even if we accept that Grimshaw and Hazard have consistently played at a higher level to Ashby-Hammond.
As I’m old fashioned, and consider a goalkeeper’s main role to be stopping the ball going into the goal, we’ll start by looking at shot stopping. There are a few ways we can analyse this, and we’ll start with a basic save success measure. Here, Ashby-Hammond doesn’t look particularly out of place, slotting in between Argyle’s two ‘keepers from last season. The numbers also indicate how well Hazard did during his spell in goal under Miron Muslic.
| Player | Saves | Goals Conceded | Save Success |
| Conor Hazard | 85 | 39 | 69% |
| Luca Ashby-Hammond* | 53 | 34 | 61% |
| Dan Grimshaw | 75 | 49 | 60% |
Of course, neither the number nor proportion of saves tells the full story. The quality of those saves, and particularly the quality of shots a goalkeeper faces, is a crucial measure when deciding who is the better shot stopper. And, as I often do, I’m going to rely on post-shot xG data to aid with that process.
Here, the differences are stark. Last season, Hazard prevented 8.31 goals, whilst Grimshaw drifted into the negatives after a strong start, preventing -1.23 goals. Ashby-Hammond also has an unsatisfactory figure across his 20 games, with -2.85 goals prevented. The difference is also obvious when we consider the prevented rate (post-shot xG faced divided by goals conceded, to stop goalkeepers who face many shots stat padding). Hazard comes out on top, with Ashby-Hammond a disappointing third.
| Player | Prevented Rate |
| Conor Hazard | 1.21 |
| Dan Grimshaw | 0.97 |
| Luca Ashby-Hammond* | 0.92 |
It’s an obvious area of concern. After a 4-0 defeat to Coventry City on Boxing Day, I recall describing Grimshaw’s first half performance as “one of the worst displays of shot stopping I’ve ever seen.” Sure, he wasn’t that bad every week, but it’s not particularly pleasant to know that Ashby-Hammond has been statistically worse.
One crumb of comfort? Ashby-Hammond’s shot stopping seems to have improved throughout loan spells. He prevented, quite appallingly, -4.51 goals during the eight games we can analyse at Crawley, but at Notts County he posted a positive figure, preventing 1.92 goals. I hope that’s a sign of things to come, and he can be trusted to deliver when necessary at Argyle.
Command
When we consider how commanding a goalkeeper can be, there are a few things we can mean. Do they literally command their defence into position well enough? Do they have enough command of the defensive area to act as a sweeper when necessary? And do they command their penalty area and deal with crosses as they come in?
In terms of commanding the defence, that is of course tricky to measure. There are plenty of stats around in football, but “goalkeeper noisiness” is not yet amongst them. You’d hope that, given the number of goalkeepers Argyle have had on trial this summer, Ashby-Hammond was the one to receive positive reviews from the defenders, and that was a factor in the Greens making their move. However, time will tell.
Analysing a “sweeper keeper” isn’t without its difficulties either. With Argyle set to play a higher defensive line this season, we need to know if the ‘keeper’s starting position is good enough to deal with counter attacks and balls over the top, and goalkeeper heat maps aren’t particularly helpful. We can make some inferences though – Ashby-Hammond has completed an average of 1.41 clearances per 90 minutes, which seems fine. It’s just narrowly behind Grimshaw’s figure from last season (1.43) with both ahead of Hazard (1.24).
We do, however, have stats we can investigate when dealing with crosses. And in most, you can at least argue that Ashby-Hammond doesn’t look out of place. The number of punches he’s made per 90 is remarkably similar to both Hazard and Grimshaw…
| Player | Punches per 90 |
| Conor Hazard | 0.68 |
| Luca Ashby-Hammond* | 0.63 |
| Dan Grimshaw | 0.62 |
…and when it comes to high claims, Ashby-Hammond’s figure of 0.57 per 90 is slightly behind Hazard, but comfortably ahead of Grimshaw.
| Player | High Claims per 90 |
| Conor Hazard | 0.76 |
| Luca Ashby-Hammond* | 0.57 |
| Dan Grimshaw | 0.29 |
On the face of it, the numbers aren’t brilliant. Last season, both Hazard and Grimshaw faced criticism for not coming off their line enough, and Ashby-Hammond appears merely average when compared to the duo. However, I would note that Hazard and Grimshaw would have faced more crosses in an Argyle side who were under the cosh for much of the season. Had Ashby-Hammond had more to deal with, there’s every chance he’d come out on top for both punches and high claims.
In an ideal world, Ashby-Hammond will meet his potential when it comes to command. It could prove to be his main strength across all goalkeeping disciplines.
Distribution
We’ve waited long enough, and it’s time to talk about how Ashby-Hammond copes with the ball at his feet. And yes, that means assessing the distribution of a player who scored surely the most remarkable own goal a successful trialist has ever scored.
Interestingly, and perhaps reassuringly, I don’t think that moment is fully reflective of Ashby-Hammond’s abilities in possession. His success when making a long pass is a strong example. Despite Grimshaw receiving praise for his distribution, and deservedly so, Ashby-Hammond actually completed more long passes to a better success rate. His success rate of 31% is also enough to top the charts ahead of Hazard.
| Player | Long Passes Attempted | Long Passes Completed | Success Rate |
| Luca Ashby-Hammond* | 428 | 131 | 31% |
| Conor Hazard | 644 | 181 | 28% |
| Dan Grimshaw | 488 | 123 | 25% |
Ashby-Hammond also has an assist to his name. With Notts County already 2-0 up away at Bradford City, he walloped the ball clear to get Alassana Jatta, a rumoured Argyle target in previous windows, in behind the defence. The striker made no mistake. If Argyle are looking to exploit some high lines away from home this season, that could prove handy.
Where Ashby-Hammond falls behind, perhaps slightly explaining the own goal, is when we only consider short passing. The difference in success rates here is so miniscule, but that can be enough to make a difference. For a goalkeeper, every short pass that goes wrong brings immediate danger to their team.
| Player | Short Passes Attempted | Short Passes Completed | Success Rate |
| Conor Hazard | 183 | 181 | 99% |
| Dan Grimshaw | 484 | 475 | 98% |
| Luca Ashby-Hammond* | 513 | 500 | 97% |
With the weight of numbers (and actually attempting more short passes across his 20 games than Grimshaw in 21), Ashby-Hammond has at least demonstrated he has experience playing in possession-oriented teams. To succeed under Tom Cleverley, he’ll probably just need to keep his head under pressure. It’s easier said than done.
Overall verdict
In some cases, particularly when looking at his shot stopping, you may get the impression that this is a hit piece on Ashby-Hammond. I promise that isn’t my intention. Whenever Hazard isn’t available this year, including on opening day and potentially beyond, Ashby-Hammond will need to step up, and I hope he takes those opportunities and prove his worth.
I also think we need to be realistic about the standards a backup goalkeeper ought to bring. Sure, I accept that Marosi and Burton both had better careers than Ashby-Hammond before joining Argyle, but both were probably playing a division above their natural level. I’d say Marosi was a League One standard goalkeeper playing in the Championship, whilst Burton was a League Two standard goalkeeper playing in League One, though I accept the latter is more debatable.
Is Ashby-Hammond a League Two standard goalkeeper? Probably. Can he follow in Burton’s footsteps and do a job for Argyle in League One? I certainly hope so, and we won’t need to wait too long to find out.