 Tuesday, 21st Dec 2010 09:05 by Forgotten Heroes A look at the goalkeeper who signed in this week 34 years ago. It was fair to say that Saints were having goalkeeping problems at the start of 76/77 in the afterglow of the cup final and when Peter Wells made his debut against Blackpool just before Xmas he was the fifth goalkeeper to pull on the green shirt, Ian Turner, Steve Middleton, plus Colin Boulton and 1973 Cup Final hero Jim Montgomery on loan had all featured before. But Wells was to make the jeersey his own for the rest of that season and the best part of the following, although a 3-3 home draw was an auspicious start, Eyebrows were raised at his arrival from Nottingham Forest's reserves, at just 20 he had little experience and the £8,000 fee was very low even in those days, but he would turn out to be a bargain buy. For the rest of 76/77 he would not miss a game and establish himself as the number 1 keeper at Saints, strangely though at the beginning of 77/78 he found himself in the reserves and Ian Turner restored to the number 1 spot, however after 8 games and Saints starting to look leaky at the back he would be restored to the first team and would remain there for the rest of the season apart from a brief spell out with an injury in January. At the end of 77/78 Saints were of course promoted to the top flight but little did Peter know that he had already played well over a third of the total games he would play in his 6 1/2 years at the Dell. The writing was perhaps on the wall in February 78 when Saints paid £35,000 for Terry Gennoe, but initially he wasnt able to force Wells out, at least not in the promotion season as he was outstanding in the run up to promotion. Peter started Saints first season back in the top flight, but it wasclear that he was suffering a lack of confidence as Lawrie Mcmenemy started another overhaul of the side and he soon found himself ousted by Gennoe, this spell in the reserves would only be relatively short, but he missed the League Cup Run and a Wembley appearance although in the league he would play almost half the games. Terry Gennoe was restored again for 79/80, but Peter hung on in there and soon was back in the side, but although he would play over half the League games and had seen off the challenge of Gennoe who had played his last game for the club, a new challenger came in the shape of Ivan Katalinic 80/81 was of course a monumental season with the arrival of Kevin Keegan and Wells had to oust yet another keeper who had got the nod ahead of him, but from November onwards Wells was first choice, although he would be perhaps the last name recalled if anyone was naming that side of 1980 that sneaked into 6th and a UEFA Cup spot with a final game win 3-2 at Iswich. Initially 81/82 looked good for Wells, he started as first choice and Saints looked good, but as they endured a little blip in the Autumn he once again paid the price and found himself in the reserves and Katalinic back and this time there was no ousting him. For a brief moment in the summer of 82 Peter must have thought his luck was back with Katalinic heading back to Yugoslavia, however then up popped Peter Shilton and he was back firmly as second choice and tto be blunt there was no way he was going to be able to oust Shilts. His Saints career was nearly at an end although there would be a brief moment of controversy as Saints found themselves the centre of a rape allegation in Sweden for a UEFA cup game, whilst the finger of suspicion pointed at Mark Wright, he was one of three players with ginger hair in the squad, in the end it was to prove all unfounded. But for Peter he was now at the career crossroads, he had battled hard to keep winning back his place at Saints and there is no doubt he was the top keeper in the period of 76-82 overall, but he was now faced with the best keeper in the world to overcome, his last appearance for Saints came exactly six years after his first at the same place, The Dell, this time against West Brom who were beaten 4-1. He then went to Millwall on loan followed by a spell at Orient before retiring from football in 1989 aged 33 to move back to Nottingham were he would make a living driving taxi's. No one should doubt the contribution that Peter Wells made to Saints, he was a reliable keeper who kept bouncing back and was never content to just be a reserve , despite usually spending part of the season in the reserves whilst McMenemy tried yet another keeper out Peter left the club permanently in May 1983 having played a grand total of 160 games.
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