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St Johnstone keeper isn’t overly concerned with clean sheets

Alan Mannus.
Alan Mannus.

Points not clean sheets are St Johnstone goalkeeper Alan Mannus’s priority.

The Northern Irishman and his defence have only managed two shut-outs in the league campaign so far – one of them in their last game against Hearts.

But as long as the wins keep coming, it’s not a statistic that will concern him.

And another high-scoring victory at Motherwell this evening would be just as pleasing as an old-school St Johnstone 1-0.

“We had a clean sheet against Hearts and as a goalkeeper I would like to see us getting a few more between now and the end of the season,” Mannus said.

“But ultimately I would always take points over a clean sheet.

“Hearts were down to 10 men so some people might say that’s why we got the clean sheet. But I thought we deserved it.

“We also deserved to win but it was one of those days when we just weren’t going to score.

“The lack of clean sheets this season would annoy me a lot more if we were near the bottom of the league.

“Then the finger would be pointed at myself and the defence, but more so at me as the keeper.”

He added: “I would rather win 3-2 than draw 0-0 and there have been a few games like that this year.

“Last season we had more clean sheets but didn’t score as many goals.

“We are not Celtic and looking to have plenty shut-outs and still score loads of goals.

“The fans seem to be enjoying it. There have been plenty of exciting games with a few goals.

“The last two matches against Celtic and Hearts are the only ones we haven’t scored in. There have been a few games where we have scored four and even five and that hasn’t really happened before in my time at the club.”

Mannus doesn’t believe the postponement of their Boxing Day clash with Partick Thistle will have an impact on tonight’s match at Fir Park.

“We’d rather the game against Partick had gone ahead as planned but it’s good to have one in midweek,” he said.

“I suspected it would be called off because the roads were flooded around where I was on Saturday morning.

“We had a good training session instead at McDiarmid on the astro.

“Motherwell are in the same position as us with their game off on Boxing Day.”

As well as with his club, the new year holds much promise for Mannus with his country, as Northern Ireland have Euro 2016 looming large in the summer.

He said: “It was a great achievement to qualify and you can see what it has meant to the fans back home.

“It is amazing to have the Euros to look forward to. That will be some experience for everybody.”