Jamal Blackman: Exeter City goalkeeper still aiming to 'reach the top'

Jamal Blackman has kept four clean sheets in nine League One appearances for Exeter City

Goalkeeper Jamal Blackman says he hopes his spell at Exeter City can help him "reach the top".

The 28-year-old joined the newly-promoted League One side in July after leaving Huddersfield Town.

The ex-Chelsea youngster hopes he can establish himself, having had eight loan spells while with the former European champions and a short stint at US side Los Angeles FC.

"In my position I feel like I'm still growing as a goalkeeper," he said.

"I've still got things to learn, things to improve on and I feel like I've got a few more years in me left to play and try and reach the top.

"I'm obviously looking forward to seeing what happens in my career and obviously seeing where I can get to."

Blackman never made a first-team appearance in a decade at Stamford Bridge, and last played regularly in the 2020-21 campaign while on loan at Rotherham United.

But this season he has kept four clean sheets in nine matches for Exeter and says his relationship with goalkeeping coach Scott Brown helped him make up his mind to move to Devon.

"I was weighing up my options and Exeter was the best one. I knew Scott as I played with him at Wycombe," said Blackman.

"He said 'we want you to play' and I was like 'this is somewhere I can feel confident' and hopefully it's a club that are striving for high ambitions because obviously they've just come back to League One and they want to be a team that shows their presence in the league.

"We're new in the league and it's early in the season, everyone is literally taking it game by game," he added.

"We are dominating most of the games and it's something we all want to build on and keep going, and keep the momentum where we want to stay in as high a possible position and try and build up on that and push for the play-offs and even higher."

'I was around some of the best in the world'

Real Madrid and Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois was a teammate of Blackman's at Chelsea

Having been around the likes of Petr Cech and Thibaut Courtois at Chelsea, Blackman says that experience of training alongside elite players continues to rub off on him to this day:

"I was around some of the best in the world, so seeing how they took in day to day to be the top of their position, you learn and you think 'that's what I want to achieve, what I want to strive to be, I want to be the best and be a number one somewhere'," he told BBC Radio Devon.

"Being a young keeper and coming through the academy, the best thing to do is go on loan, and going on loan and playing teams, you're not always going to be playing, but you're fighting for your position and that's what you learn.

"Now I've left Chelsea this is where my career needs to kick on and I need to get to where I want to be."