MARK Travers was a happy man after signing a new deal at the Vitality Stadium, and that happiness must surely be shared by Cherries supporters.

Despite keeping an impressive clean sheet in his Premier League debut as a 19-year-old against Tottenham Hotspur, the now 23-year-old has had to bide his time whilst waiting for the starting spot to open between the sticks at Cherries.

Bosnian international Asmir Begovic’s departure saw Cherries’ goalkeeping situation blown wide open last summer, and with no other senior glovesman at the club, Travers stepped up in what proved to be a breakthrough season.

Despite Cherries’ long-term interest in Freddie Woodman, by the time the Englishman finally arrived on loan from Newcastle in January, Travers had fully cemented himself as number one at the Vitality Stadium.

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The basic numbers instantly indicate that Cherries have a solid shot-stopper between the sticks, with Travers picking up the Championship’s Golden Glove award and helping his side to the fewest goals conceded in the league last term.

Bournemouth Echo: Mark Travers was named the Mickey Cave Daily Echo Player of the Year for his exploits last term (Pic: Stuart Martin)Mark Travers was named the Mickey Cave Daily Echo Player of the Year for his exploits last term (Pic: Stuart Martin) (Image: Stuart Martin)

But even though the surface numbers are nothing but positive, there are even more indications that the Maynooth-born ‘keeper will be a big part of Cherries’ survival bid next campaign.

Before delving deep into the numbers, it should be pointed out that Cherries’ defence operates on the premise of restricting the overall quantity of shots, rather than necessarily focusing on the quality of shots.

By preventing sides from taking shots in general, Cherries also deny opposition attackers from taking up the best possible shooting positions.

Of course, the backline is by no means porous, but whilst Cherries allowed the fourth-fewest shots in the division, the percentage of those shots being on target was the sixth highest in the Championship.

As such, when a side does manage to bypass the Cherries defence and place an effort on target, they usually rely on Travers being able to thwart attackers.

Faith in the Irishman is well placed, judging on his high save-percentage.

Only three other Championship custodians can better Traver’s record of stopping 76.9 per cent of on-target efforts, far above the division’s mean average of 69.6 per cent.

It is no surprise then that Travers also outperforms his Expected Conceded Goals – according to Wyscout, Travers was expected to have conceded 45.9 times in the Championship, but instead, the Irish international was beaten on 39 occasions.

Whilst Cherries do not excessively over-perform their xGA such as sides like Nottingham Forest and Millwall, they have conceded fewer goals than statistically models expect.

Travers plays a big part in that overachievement, consistently outperforming the expected goals conceded metric.

In terms of individual games, the biggest difference between xGA and the actual goals conceded came in Cherries’ dramatic victory away at Blackpool.

Overall, Cherries' final xGA was 2.51, with Travers coming up with six saves, surpassed just once from seven efforts.

Beaten by an absolute screamer of a shot from Josh Bowler in the first-half, Travers produced some big saves in the second-half to ensure his side had a fighting chance in the final stages.

Jamal Lowe and Siriki Dembele’s late heroics overshadowed their goalkeeper’s contributions, but matchwinner Dembele took the time after the match to point out that their number one had kept them in the game.

“There was one (save), I think if that went in, I think the game would have been over," Dembele told the Daily Echo.

“But what a save - not even what a save - he made some in the first half and in the second half and he kept us in the game big time. I can't lie.”