Family first for Saints keeper

Mannus explains decision to call time on international career

Alan Mannus’ retiral from international football was his own decision, the St Johnstone keeper has revealed.

The Northern Irishman had planned to hang up his gloves for his country after Euro 2016 but a late change of heart saw him stay on for the last World Cup qualifying campaign.

His club form would certainly have merited selection by Michael O’Neill for the friendly against South Korea next weekend but Mannus had made up his mind to call it a day.

“I finished with Northern Ireland after the qualifiers,” he said. “I always intended not being involved any more.

“It’s something I had known I was going to do for the last couple of years. I was actually going to do it after the Euros. But the week before the squad got announced, I thought about it and decided to give it one more go.

“I would have regretted it if Northern Ireland had qualified for the World Cup.

“It is good to be involved but it got to the point where I didn’t want to be away anymore. I would rather spend time with family.

“I spoke to the manager Michael O’Neill last week and told him what I was doing, which he said was OK.

“If I was playing a lot of the games then it would be different.

“There are guys in the squad who are around my age but they are playing every time the team goes away. I believe they wouldn’t do the travelling all of the time if they weren’t going to be playing.

“I’m not saying that if you don’t play me, I’m not going. I have done it for 14 years and have hardly played at all.

“I have put in the time and have probably been in as many squads as anyone else.

“It’s been good the whole time but there comes a point, when you’re away, when you think I would rather spend time with family. That is more important now.”

Since an injury to Zander Clark gave the former Linfield man his chance as Perth No 1 again, Mannus has been near faultless.

No player is content to be an understudy but professionalism was never going to be an issue for a player like Mannus, who has had to fight for everything he’s got out of the game.

“All you can do is wait for your chance,” he said. “When you are taken out of the team, what options do you have?

“You can let it get to you in a negative way and give up on it.

“But you can also keep doing what you have always done, training the same way and trying to be ready if the opportunity comes up again.

“I wasn’t ever going to give up on things or be in a bad mood about it. “At the end of the day it is my job. “Not everything is always going to go your way. That is the same with jobs outside of football, and I have had them.

“I took me until 29 to get into full-time football. Before that I was at school, university, working and coaching.

“I look at other goalkeepers that are here. When they were 18, they were at academies with full-time football. I would have been training once a week with my team. It’s a bit of a different pathway.

“That made me feel that I had to do that bit more, which isn’t saying others didn’t work.

“I’m glad that I got my chance to come over here and show what I could do.”

After a clean sheet and convincing win at Dens Park on Saturday, Mannus and his Saints team-mates will have to repeat that against Hibs tonight.

“Hibs seem to be doing really well and are coming off a brilliant result (against Hearts),” he said.

“We have had two good games against them, beating them away and drawing at home.

“Both times the games were close and we played really well. We need to do that to get anything from this week’s game.

“On Saturday against Dundee I thought we were excellent from the start. Every single player on the pitch did their job and got back to what we needed to be doing to get results out of games.

“That was a proper St Johnstone performance.

“Jason Kerr has been brilliant since he has come in and that is a massive positive for the club.

“Chris Kane has obviously played with us before this season but when he is on his game he causes so many problems to teams.

“Young Kyle McClean came on and he looks like a good player. He can go on to bigger and better things as well.

“There were a lot of positives to take from the weekend. It is exactly what we needed performance-wise and resultswise.”

Saints’ rearranged home game against Hamilton Accies will be played on Wednesday March 28.

All you can do is wait for your chance. ALAN MANNUS