St Johnstone goalkeeper Dimitar Mitov will likely sweep the board at Sunday’s player of the year awards.
No outfield player comes close to the Bulgarian’s consistency and excellence over the course of a league campaign that sees the Perth club in a perilous spot as the season draws to a conclusion.
Signing Mitov from Cambridge United on a two-year deal was a shrewd piece of business and will protect Saints if, as is likely, there are suitors in the summer.
Fans have been spoiled with the quality of goalkeepers who have played at McDiarmid Park.
John Balavage, Lindsey Hamilton, Andy Rhodes, Peter Enckelman and Remi Matthews have all enjoyed superb seasons.
The three truly great goalkeepers of the McDiarmid era though are Alan Main, Alan Mannus and Zander Clark.
Mitov will probably not be at Saints for long enough to break into the ‘legend’ bracket – or be part of a team that emulates those of the golden era.
But his heroics for Steven MacLean and Craig Levein undoubtedly make him one of the best to have played in goals over the last 40 years.
Courier Sport has broken down the various goalkeeping attributes needed to see which of the top four rank highest in each, with the results of a supporters’ poll completing 10 categories.
Crosses
It’s a very subjective field, this one.
Some goalkeeper coaches want their man to let the outfield players deal with corners unless the ball is delivered right on top of them.
It often felt as if that was the case with Mannus and Clark.
Main was at the other end of the scale.
Perhaps harshly, it’s the corners (and open play crosses) he came for and missed during his career (with Dundee United in the Scottish Cup semi-final against Saints, the final against Motherwell and the United comeback at McDiarmid in 2001) that stick in the mind.
No goalkeeper is going to deal with them all (and Mitov got away with a fumble at Pittodrie) but he’s part of a small band of goalies who will actually catch a cross ball rather than punch all the time.
That counts for a lot.
Top – Mitov
Agility
The other three are eight of 10 performers but there’s only one winner here – Main.
He maybe had a bit too much nervous energy for a goalkeeper and was like a cat on a hot tin roof at times.
But he was a master of the reflex save.
Denying James Grady in the game that got Saints back into Europe in 1999 is the most celebrated example but there were many, many others.
Top – Main
One v ones
Maybe there’s a bit of recency bias at play but it feels as if this is where Mitov puts himself above the rest.
It might even be his biggest strength.
He’s had plenty of practice but Mitov has denied virtually every number nine in the Premiership over the course of the season when it’s been man against man.
Top – Mitov
Penalties
Mitov has yet to save one that matters so doesn’t have the body of work to contend here.
This is a straight battle between Mannus and Clark.
Although the Northern Irishman has a famous one in the shoot-out against Luzern to his name, the goal who succeeded him took significant penalty saves to a whole new level in the double season.
He denied Dunfermline’s Kevin O’Hara in the League Cup quarter-final shoot-out, tipped a Charlie Adam spot-kick on to the post in normal time in the last-16 of the Scottish Cup and then kept out two Rangers penalties after extra-time in the quarter-final of that competition.
Clark had built a penalty specialist aura by the start of the next season, with Callum Davidson sending him on for Elliott Parish at Gayfield following the conclusion of the 120 minutes of football in their defence of the League Cup.
Top – Clark
Kicking
Mitov started the season very well with a ball at his feet. Both feet.
But he’s found touch rather than a team-mate a bit too frequently to be considered as good as Main, in particular.
Whereas the pass-back rule being introduced hampered Andy Rhodes’ career progression it enhanced his successor’s.
Out of hand and off the ground, Main wins.
Top – Main
In the opposition box
This is a category made for assist king, Clark.
You don’t buy a goalkeeper on the basis of his heading ability but the double-winning hero wrote his name in St Johnstone folklore on the back of his impressive technique in meeting Liam Craig’s last-gasp corner.
Mitov used to be a striker but Saints fans will be hoping they won’t be seeing him charging up the pitch with their club’s Premiership status on the line.
Top – Clark
Presence and temperament
All goalkeepers are loud – on the pitch, at least.
And nearly all of them are very big – tall, broad, or both.
But ‘filling the goal’ isn’t a given.
None of the four Saints goalies could be found wanting here.
Main wasn’t immune to spreading panic through his defence and by seek to get involved unnecessarily, however.
Mitov has had his moments as well (away at Kilmarnock when he got caught in no man’s land and, of course, the rush out of his box that ended up with Lyall Cameron scoring into an unguarded net for Dundee).
Clark improved season upon season and has continued along that path at Tynecastle.
But the calm assurance of Mannus narrowly prevails.
The man never got flustered.
Top – Mannus
Low error count
It comes with the job description that good saves are expected but bad mistakes that lead to goals are, more often than not, remembered more clearly.
That Dundee goal is Mitov’s one and only but he still falls just short of Mannus, whose reliability was arguably his biggest asset.
He was far less flamboyant than Main, Rhodes and a few others down the years but none have been more dependable.
It says it all that when he was the Saints assistant manager, Callum Davidson said Mannus was in the mould of David Seaman.
Top – Mannus
Big game, big performance
Mitov hasn’t had the chance to stake a claim here.
That may yet come as the fixture list gets ever shorter and the dreaded play-offs loom ever larger.
Mannus isn’t the player who comes into your head when you think Scottish Cup semi-final win, Rosenborg, Luzern or May 17, 2014.
For the latter it was the ball hitting his back while he was on the ground facing the other way that Saints fans will never forget, rather than a spectacular save.
Main lived for the spotlight and often shone brightly under it.
And now it's Zander Clark who makes a top class save! 🔥
St Johnstone's quarter final hero denies what looked like an almost certain St Mirren opener 👏#ScottishCup pic.twitter.com/nNMJbMi1sJ
— Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) May 9, 2021
Even taking Ibrox out of the equation, he was a Hampden hero at 0-0 to deny Hibs’ Jamie Murphy with his feet in the League Cup semi and then Lee Erwin, also at 0-0, from point-blank range in the Scottish. Then there was Galatasaray.
Top – Clark
Fans’ vote
A 24-hour X poll has given supporters the chance to make their selection.
Over 1,000 votes were posted and the final totals were –
1 Alan Main – 31.2%
2 Alan Mannus – 27.3%
3 Dimitar Mitov – 23.1%
4 Zander Clark – 18.3%
Top – Main
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