Pickford Sets New England Clean Sheet Record

Jordan Pickford set a new record for consecutive clean sheets for England defeated Wales 3-0 in a friendly at Wembley on Thursday evening.

The existing record of seven had stood since the summer of 1966 when Gordon Banks kept seven consecutive shutouts.

The Blues goalkeeper had equalled the record once before between November 2020 and July 2021, but went one better this time as he kept Wales at bay with two saves in the Home Nations clash.

The Three Lions raced into a 3-0 lead inside 20 minutes thanks to goals from Morgan Rogers, Ollie Watkins and Bukayo Saka, and Pickford secured his record-breaking clean sheet with second-half saves from a pair of efforts from David Brooks and Chris Mepham. 

The Everton shot-stopper now has the third-most clean sheets for England, with 41 – only Peter Shilton (66) and Joe Hart (43) have more.

Pickford could extend his streak to nine matches on Tuesday evening (7.45pm kick-off BST) in a World Cup qualifier away at Latvia. England can secure qualification with a win, with two matches to spare, provided that Serbia fail to defeat Albania on Saturday.

Up to four Blues could feature in Friday's international action, with Idrissa Gana Gueye and Iliman Ndiaye looking to secure Senegal's qualification for next year's World Cup in the first fixture of the day.

If the Lions of Teranga can pick up all three points away at South Sudan and DR Congo drop points at Togo (both matches 1pm kick-off BST), they will secure qualification with one game remaining.

Meanwhile, Vitalii Mykolenko's Ukraine are looking for their first win of this World Cup qualifying campaign as they face a trip to Iceland (7.45pm kick-off BST), and Tyler Dibling could pick up his fourth cap for England Under-21s as they travel to Moldova for a UEFA U21 European Championship qualifier (5pm kick-off BST).