Former England goalkeeper Ray Clemence believes Scott Carson is still suffering from a lack of confidence after his horror blunder against Croatia five months ago but is backing the Liverpool player to eventually recover.
But ex-England goalkeeping coach Clemence has faith in the 22-year-old to bounce back in the same way as he has seen encouraging signs regarding Paul Robinson's recent form after his blunder in the first meeting with Croatia 18 month ago.
Clemence, now the FA's head of national teams, said: "Carson has had a little bit of a downturn since the Croatia game and looks to be lacking a little bit of confidence at the moment.
"He is only 22 and, the younger you are, the more criticism hurts and he did take a lot for that game against Croatia when there were other people on the field that night who didn't play that well either.
"Unfortunately he has taken the brunt of it since and I've been at a couple of grounds to watch Villa where the fans haven't been the kindest to him.
"It is difficult at the moment for him but I know him, he is a strong character, he is young and he will bounce back and the ability will not leave him.
"I know that he will come back because he has great ability."
