Zander hopes to give Gers away-day Blues

ZANDER Clark has forged a reputation as a clean-sheet specialist.

But seven shut-outs in nine games came hard on the heels of losing 11 to Celtic and Rangers.

Crashing 6-0 to the Hoops rubbed salt in wounds still raw from a 5-1 humbling at Ibrox.

But Clark and his Saints took the lessons on board to join the scrap for a top-six spot.

“Any sort of heavy defeat is hard to take. It’s not nice when you have to keep going back to pick the ball out of the back of your net,” admitted the keeper.

It’s the Perth club’s first live television match since being put through the mill by the Hoops.

“Folk maybe watched that game and judged us on it but it was far from what we’re about as a team,” said Clark.

“It’s a chance to go and show that we have turned a corner and that we’re a different team.

“We had clear-the-air talks after the Celtic game and realised that we had to get back to the St Johnstone of previous years where we were resolute in defence and teams found it hard to break us down.

“That’s what we did. It was mostly one and two-goal wins.

“I’d imagine every club has chats like that. It’s never nice being on the end of defeats like that.”

Rangers dropped another couple of points on the road despite dominating Hibs in midweek.

“Their form hasn’t been great but they’re a squad full of quality players,” added Clark.

“We’re just focusing on ourselves and making sure we bounce back from Saturday’s defeat against Motherwell.

“It was sloppy from us. The most frustrating thing was we’d been so solid in defence in our unbeaten run.”