Remi Matthews has confirmed he expects to stay at St Johnstone until the end of the season.
Matthews joined up at McDiarmid Park on a season long loan from Crystal Palace in the summer.
However, eyebrows were raised when Palace sent back-up stopper Jack Butland on loan to Manchester United late last week.
Despite that alteration to the goalkeeping roster at Selhurst Park, Matthews revealed it will have no impact on his own arrangement.
Welcome to United, @JackButland_One ✍️🔴#MUFC
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) January 6, 2023
Speaking to the Perthshire Advertiser, he said: “I’m here for the season. I’m enjoying my football. And I want to help St Johnstone get as high up the table as possible.”
The Perth side’s hopes of climbing the table took a bump after their defeat to Aberdeen on Saturday.
It was Saints’ fourth loss on the spin.
But Matthews, who is loving his time as a St Johnstone player, wants to help the club get over its recent rough patch.
“We had a good start to the season,” he said. “Is this now our blip?
“If it is, we need to come out the other end sooner rather than later. We’ve had Celtic, Hearts and Aberdeen who are up there with the top teams in the league.
“Now it’s Livi – always a tough game – then Rangers back-to-back. But we need to show a bit more fight and unity to come together in the hard times.
“The biggest thing for me is sticking together – fans, players and manager. It will turn.
“Aberdeen had a tough time recently but they dug (Saturday’s) result out and there are a few other teams struggling.”
Everyone involved with St Johnstone cut a frustrated figure after Saturday’s painful loss to Aberdeen.
Like his manager, Matthews couldn’t shake the feeling that their defeat was largely self-inflicted.
Having made a number of impressive saves to keep the scores level before Luis ‘Duk’ Lopes struck Aberdeen’s first, Matthews was more frustrated than most.
But he remains determined that the key to arresting Saints’ January slump lie in hard work.
“I’m starting to get frustrated now because I feel like I keep saying the same stuff over and over again,” Matthews said.
“We are giving away too many easy goals and that is killing us.
“The long ball comes over the top. It’s a basic thing for a defender.
“I think we limited them to less chances in the second half and it could’ve gone either way.
“You make a few saves and ideally we can nick it, then you are buzzing.
“But when you go and lose 2-0 it means absolutely nothing.
“My job is to obviously try and help the team as much as I can. I feel I did that in the first half.
“But the problem is it comes down to the final result. We lose 2-0 and nobody really cares about the saves you make.
“It is frustrating but we cannot keep dwelling on what has happened. We need to figure something out and try get points on the board.”
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