Lewis desperate to keep sheet clean at Hampden
THE rush to embrace the collective in team sport can often lead to some strange standpoints.
Managers insisting “it isn’t about them” despite their very livelihoods being on the line. Strikers who claim they don’t mind whether they score or not in a victory. And goalkeepers underlining how insignificant it is whether they keep clean sheets as long as the team prevails, even though their only job is to try to prevent the opposition scoring.
Joe Lewis initially started off down that same path as he looked ahead to tomorrow’s Betfred Cup Final between his team Aberdeen and Celtic – “if we win 6-5, then I will still be happy” – but further scrutiny revealed a goalkeeper determined to play his part in setting what would be an impressive record and one that would guarantee Lewis’s position in Pittodrie folklore.
Aberdeen’s route to the final has seen them play three ties against three Premiership sides in three cities and prevail each time without the concession of a solitary goal. If beating St Mirren 4-0 at home was fairly humdrum, then holding Hibernian to a goalless draw on their own ground before progressing on penalties was another achievement all together.
Few had expected them to get the better of Rangers at Hampden in the semi-final but again Lewis and his defence held firm. Lewis Ferguson’s header would prove enough to clinch victory and set up tomorrow’s encounter with Celtic, again at the national stadium.
“It would be great to win the cup without losing a goal because goalkeepers pride themselves on clean sheets,” he admitted. “If we win 1-0 that would be great, 3-0 would be better right enough.
“Clean sheets sometimes don’t mean great performances, but it is something that people judge goalkeepers on, rightly or wrongly. It would be a nice record to have, going through the competition without losing a goal and it is something that would be talked about for years to come. But, however the win comes, I will take it.
“We have had to do it the hard way to get to the final and we have to take confidence from that. They maybe haven’t been the prettiest of games at times, but it is about winning in cup games and we have done that. If we do that on Sunday then we will have won the cup.”
It could take a penalty shoot-out once again for Aberdeen to come out on top, just as it did when they won this trophy in 2014. Lewis is ready for that outcome.
“We practiced penalties this week but you have to be decisive as a goalkeeper,” he explained.
“Much like taking the penalty, you have to pick the way you are going and stick to it. You just hope your gut instinct is right.
“I saved one at Hibernian and we got through, so that gives myself, and the boys who scored them, confidence.
“I don’t think a penalty shootout is a lottery because you need the bottle to stand up and take them. It is about who holds their nerve. If the ‘keeper guesses the way you are going and saves it, then you can say you are unlucky.”
‘‘ It is something that people judge keepers on, rightly or wrongly