The reserve keeper

Original non-fiction-style practice text.

Our reserve goalkeeper spent the final on the bench. At the presentation, someone suggested giving him a smaller medal because he had not touched the ball. This proposal possessed the tidy logic of a person who had arrived only for the match.

For weeks, the reserve had trained against the first team, taken shots while the forwards practised and remained ready to enter if the starting keeper could not continue. None of that proves he played the final. It explains why not playing did not mean contributing nothing. We should be precise in both directions.

I enjoy an outstanding save as much as anyone. I do not wish to turn the scoreboard into a list of everybody's good intentions. Yet a team depends partly on work which the final score cannot itemise. Give the reserve the same medal. If we need to explain why, let the explanation make our idea of a team more accurate rather than our medals more complicated.

Assess the writer’s attitude towards recognition of the reserve goalkeeper. Use three details from the text to support your answer.