GOALKEEPER WANTS MORE RECOGNITION EMPHASIS ONYOUTH
Clark hails impact of academy
St Johnstone goalkeeper Zander Clark reckons the success of the club’s youth academy deserves greater recognition.
A chunk of the current Perth lineup are players who have, at one stage, been brought through the ranks at McDiarmid Park.
Clark himself, captain Jason Kerr, Ali McCann, Chris Kane and Stevie May have all previously featured heavily in the youth set-up.
And local lad Liam Gordon was brought to the club aged 19, while David Wotherspoon was involved as a young kid before moving elsewhere.
With a national cup final on the horizon, Clark feels it’s mightily impressive that Saints have managed to help produce such talent.
“Many of the players in the team are boys who have come through the youth academy,” he told the PA.
“That is a massive credit to the club for bringing these players on.
“It’s probably something that doesn’t get mentioned an awful lot for some reason.
“If this group of boys can go and win a cup it would be a massive personal achievement and for the club.
“Players like Ali McCann have come through the youth set-up to now be a Northern Ireland international.
“Ali is a gifted player, no denying it, but it starts at a young age with the right training. It gives you the platform to showcase what you can do.
“The team this season has been made up of a chunk of academy graduates.
“You can see we’ve all got an understanding with each other and it probably does help with years and years together at youth level.
“And young ones coming through at the club just now can look up to that and think ‘I have got a chance of doing it’.”
The whole squad and management team would write their name into St Johnstone folklore with a Hampden victory against Livingston at the end of the month.
But before then an important trip to Motherwell tomorrow on Premiership duty is the priority.
“Since we made the final it’s always in the back of your head,” Clark said.
“But the league is the most important thing for us right now.
“The two teams are relatively close to each other in the table so it would be nice to get the win and create a wee bit of room.
“You always hear people in football talking about momentum. You find it can have a knock-on effect.
“When a good result comes, it can give everyone a lift. We’ll be looking for a positive performance and result.”
Motherwell were defeated 4-1 by rivals Hamilton last week and Clark expects a backlash.
He said: “They would be who’s available, who’s fit. If anyone does hold back then they will have less chance of playing the following Sunday.” Davidson noted that cup final places are still up for grabs. When quizzed on whether he has a Hampden team in mind for the showdown with Livingston, he said: “It is a funny question, quite a few people have asked me that.
“At the moment I would probably say that I haven’t put much thought into it.
“I am very much looking at the next game coming up to see what we can do. There might be players on Saturday who perform really well and I think I can’t leave them out. “I usually wait until Tuesday or Wednesday in the
week before I start to make my mind up. I look at certain things in games and what I think certain players can do.
“It is a difficult one. There will be places up for grabs.”
While Saints have moved back closer to top-six contention, Davidson is urging his players to keep their foot on the gas and not let teams below them make up any ground.
“We know it is a dog fight and I think the players have risen to the challenge over the past couple of months,” he said. “We need to continue that until the end of the season.”
A run of two defeats in 10 – those losses were against Rangers and Celtic – has the Perth men feeling in confident mood as they head to take on Motherwell this weekend.
The Lanarkshire club, meanwhile, were thumped by rivals Hamilton last Saturday and will be looking to make amends.
Davidson knows the Steelmen’s manager Graham Alexander well and said: “I think he still plays a similar formation. Whether he changes that after the result at the weekend I don’t know.
“All I know with Graham is how he sets his team up. They will be very hard to play against and they work extremely hard.
“He was at places where he had to change things. He is quite open minded that way and he wants to win games.
“We are both pretty similar in that respect and that is probably why we get on so well.
“I will probably have a wee argument with him on the sideline after 3pm for about 90 minutes. Then after that we will shake hands and get on again.”