The lowdown on West Brom keeper prospect Josh Griffiths' loan at Bristol Rovers

Griffiths, 23, has long been hailed as a future star between the sticks for the Baggies, where he has been since the age of 10. He signed a new contract until 2027 in the summer and has already made 13 senior appearances for his parent club.

This loan, which follows useful stints at Cheltenham, Lincoln and Portsmouth, has already seen the keeper clock up 17 games in all competitions.

We caught up with Rovers reporter for Bristol Live Dan Hargraves for the lowdown on Griffiths' time at the Memorial Stadium so far.

Q: How has Josh fared overall with the Gas?

DH: He has done well. When you look at a goalkeeper you think of how many points have they earned individually? And he certainly has earned Bristol Rovers points. Though they would like to be higher than where they are in the bottom half.

In the first five games he was probably their best player, which reflects how things were going. There were some good results but they rode their luck and relied on outstanding saves.

You can see there's an outstanding shot-stopper there. He's a great profile physically, a colossal size.

His saves from point-blank range have been ridiculously good, some brilliant reaction saves.

Q: Has he had to use his feet much in terms of passing out from the back under Matt Taylor?

DH: It's 50-50, it's a bit of both. It's not his predominant requirement, every single time. They do like to switch it up.

So he will go long in games on occasion, but he is alright with his feet, he's not terrible. A lot of the time it comes down to players being available. But it is League One football, there will always be a bit of brutishness and hoof about it.

He is confident with the ball at his feet, so there is good versatility there.

Q: What areas of improvement, if any, are there?

DH: The only area of improvement is commandment of his area. There have been a few occasions where he's been a bit flappy with crosses and set-pieces.

There has been a mistake or two, which can always happen, but without Josh Rovers could've found themselves lower down the table.

The reason he's come on loan because he isn't the finished article. But he's in a good position here, Josh will play every game because of Rovers' goalkeeper department.

His errors haven't led to many chances or goals against. There was a standout one leading to a goal for Wigan.

But I think there's an improvement. Rovers were struggling defensively from set-pieces for the first few months of the season but it has improved in recent games. They did it very well against Lincoln recently, the best team in the EFL from set-pieces, and Josh was a big part of it.

Q: For context - Griffiths displaced a very popular local academy graduate as No.1?

DH: Yes, he did walk into that. It wasn't going to be easy for whoever came in after the job done last season by Jed Ward, who is so popular with fans.

The plan was always for Rovers to go in for a goalkeeper, though. They knew Jed was thrown into the deep end but wasn't ready for a full League One season. He's out on loan with Forest Green in the National League.

Jed has looked very good so far at that level. So the hope there is similar with Josh and West Brom, that a season away will help him come back and try to push for that No.1.

It was far from ideal to walk into. There were some fans who wanted to see the local lad do well. Josh had to play particularly well to introduce himself and warm fans to him.

Q: Has he been popular generally in other aspects and what does boss Taylor make of him?

DH: We had him for an interview very early on and he was very likeable, approachable and chatty. 

Matt Taylor's already said in his press it's a shame he is not Rovers' goalkeeper, so that says a lot!

It was after six games or so, he'd done a team meeting and asked players to name their player of the season so far and most of them said Josh. He made the point it was where performances have been if the goalkeeper is the best player.

They have relied on him a lot. Josh has definitely won over his manager.