The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Cup hero hopes penalty save proves to be omen
St Johnstone goalkeeper Zander Clark is hoping his weekend penalty save will prove to be a cup omen. Clark produced heroics in the shoot-out of the Betfred Cup quarter-final against Dunfermline to help keep the Perth club in the competition they ended up winning.
And by denying Dundee’s Charlie Adam from the spot at Dens Park, the big goalie played a crucial role in ensuring Saints were in the hat for the last-16 and last-eight draws for the Scottish Cup.
On the prospect of history repeating itself and his penalty save being part of another cup triumph, Clark said: “It would be a nice tradition!
“My brother and my dad used to cane me for not saving penalties when I was younger. It used to be that if it was a penalty you knew it would be a goal because I was hopeless at saving them.
“I don’t know what it is but something has changed. The odds are heavily stacked against you but you have to believe that you’ll save it. Maybe I’m just getting more lucky and going the right way.
“It is a lottery but thankfully for me, just now it’s going my way.”
Saints were drawn to face Clyde in the fifth round and, should they progress, will then face the winners of an Old Firm derby away from home in the quarter-finals.
To the best of my knowledge St Johnstone fans are as likely to call a roundabout a circle, a pie a peh or sing Up Wi’ The Bonnets from start to finish without getting a word wrong as they are to describe their club’s fixture against Dundee as a traditional football derby – or bemoan the fact that it isn’t.
In the build-up to Saturday’s Scottish Cup tie, the “this isn’t our derby” message from Charlie Adam would have provoked a collective shrug of the shoulders in Perth.
As far as the Saints squad is concerned, there is certainly a “couldn’t care less” vibe about the categorisation of their games against Dundee.
What is not up for debate among players and supporters alike, however, is the burning desire to beat their Tayside neighbours whenever the chance presents itself, which has not been very often of late, given the fact they play in different leagues.
In a wider context, Saturday’s victory was Saints’ first-ever in the Scottish Cup at Dens and, from a narrower and more recent perspective, their fifth in a row without so much as conceding a goal to the Dark Blues.
The terms of a local rivalry are always open to interpretation but a win leaves no room for misunderstanding.
“We would have had a big support through here today,” said Saints keeper Zander Clark, whose second half penalty save from Adam was a pivotal moment in the tie.
“Dundee class their derby as Dundee United but we’re not bothered about that. They can class whatever they want as their derby.
“All that matters to us is winning.
“It would have been nice to have been stood in front of our fans behind the goal after the game because they would have had plenty shout about.
“I hope a lot of them have enjoyed watching it in the house – although I’m sure there will be a few who begrudge giving their money to Dundee tele.”
The Betfred Cup heroics, the guaranteed top six Premiership finish and the easy-on-the-eye football Callum Davidson’s side played for the first few months of the campaign mean that this Saints side has nothing left to prove in 2020-21.
Lose every game from here on and it will not put so much as a misplaced brushstroke on a vivid watercolour.
This is a team that has finding a way to win stamped all over it. Confidence, self-assurance and ingrained habits see them through games like the weekend contest at Dens.
It was probably in the top five of their poorest performances of the season, on one on the poorest pitches in the country, against a side who played very well. However, I would be confident that no-one in yellow and blue, or nobody in the away dugout, feared at any point they would be knocked out of the cup.
When other parts of the team are creaking, as was the case at Dens, the structure, resolve and cohesion of the Saints central defensive trio is utterly reliable. Perhaps, sub-consciously, it is contributing to a “what we have, we hold” mindset when they take a lead.
Three 1-0 wins in a row, four in their last five games, speaks for itself. You can also add into the mix the fact that in their last six matches the only goal scored past Clark has been a long-range Ross Callachan wonder-strike for Hamilton Accies.
Saints are a team to be feared as long as they remain in the Scottish Cup.
“At the start of the season when we were on a poor run we were losing these type of games,” said Clark. “And we were creating more chances.
“As a defensive unit, a team and a squad we knew that we had to make ourselves harder to beat and get in and around about each other when we were defending.
“That’s certainly shown – probably from just before the turn of the year.
“The boys are grinding out results. That matters even more in cup competitions when it’s all about the result.”
Like the whole derby/ non-derby thing, whether the respect level for Saints has altered on the back of what they have accomplished in recent weeks is an irrelevance for Clark.
“Potentially, when you look at the form we’ve been on and winning the Betfred,” he said.
“But whether that’s the case or not, I don’t know. A lot of folk seem to still look at St Johnstone as the wee diddy team.
“There will who say that.”
What folk will not be able to say any more is that Clark cannot keep penalty kicks out. The vital save in the Betfred Cup quarterfinal shoot-out at East End Park, and now the one low to his left to deny Adam at the weekend, might even quieten his own family.
“My brother and my dad used to cane me for not saving penalties when I was younger,” he said. “It used to be that if it was a still be folk penalty you knew it would be a goal because I was hopeless at saving them.
“I don’t know what it is but something has changed.
“The odds are heavily stacked against you but you have to believe that you’ll save it. Maybe I’m just getting more lucky and going the right way.
“It is a lottery but thankfully for me, just now it’s going my way.”
For Saturday’s homework helped out.
“He (Adam) has taken a few in the past which I’ve had a look at,” he said.
“But you can watch as many as you want – somebody can hit 25 in a row one way and then put it in a different direction this one time and there’s save, Clark
nothing you can do. I tried to wait as long as I could and hope he’d go back to that one where he tries to whip it to the goalie’s left.
“Thankfully I’ve got enough on it to take it on to the post and it’s come back into my hands.”
High quality spells of play for Saints were few and far between.
The goal was a wellworked one, with Stevie May setting up Guy Melamed for a clinical, accurate far post finish.
There was a slick move up the left near the end of the first half that nearly culminated in another for the Israeli and one in the second period when Callum Booth should have scored.
But fluency and control were not words you would attribute to this display. It was a day for the disruptors rather than the ball players.
“We found it hard to get our rhythm going and we know we can play better but the main thing in the cup is being in the hat for the next round, which we are,” said Clark.
When reflecting on the penalty award, Clark thought he “got enough of the ball” before clattering into team-mate Liam Gordon and, more significantly, Dundee striker Danny Mullen.
But, as he ultimately saved Clark’s spot-kick, it was not an incident anybody needed to dwell on.
The incident a bit earlier when he dropped a cross and Mullen’s subsequent goal was disallowed by referee Craig Napier was far harder for Dens boss James McPake and his players to accept at the time, even though television replays subsequently showed that offside was the correct decision.
“I don’t know who I’ve banged into,” said Clark. “I thought it was a foul but it might have been my own defender.
“Then, as I’ve rotated after the collision the ball has popped out of my hands and hit the deck.
“The boy has tucked it away but it was given offside. They had to deal with it just as I’d have had to deal with it if it had been allowed.
“Maybe I was fortunate.”