Zander was just not human, admits Courts
THOMAS COURTS last night revealed his Dundee United players were left branding St Johnstone goalkeeper Zander Clark superhuman in the wake of an incredible display at Tannadice.
Clark pulled off four magnificent saves and at least a couple of other special stops in keeping the home side at bay, making sure an Ali Crawford opener earned the Perth side a welcome first win in four.
Saints boss Callum Davidson will wait to see whether Scotland manager Steve Clarke affords him a recall this week for the upcoming World Cup double-header with Moldova and Denmark.
However, United boss Courts made no secret of the rating his side gave the 29-year-old after laying siege to his goal in the second period.
‘I spoke to Benji (Siegrist) when we were walking off because a couple of the players had said it was almost unhuman-like,’ stated Courts.
‘We’ve seen Benji do that for us, too. We’ve got a keeper who can turn one point into three and I’ve seen Craig Gordon do that, too. All credit to Zander Clark for his performance, but it gave an indication of our attacking intent in the second half.
‘I think there were two or three moments at the end you could see the exasperation on our players’ faces because they’ve made clean contact and made the right decision, but the big man made a few tremendous saves and kept his team in front.’
St Johnstone manager Davidson praised his No1 afterwards for maintaining his focus after being left out of Clarke’s national squad for last month’s qualifiers against Israel and the Faroe Islands.
And he admitted that no one could have failed to be impressed by his performance yesterday.
‘Zander was outstanding, some of the saves were phenomenal,’ he said.
‘He has been like that since I’ve been here. All credit to him because he didn’t let his head go down when he didn’t get back into the Scotland squad. I think if any manager is watching that, they’ll think it was a decent performance.
‘Zander reacted the right way. I told him to keep performing at a high level and he’s doing that. He’s done it in big games against big teams.
‘We were excellent first half. We pressed really high up and they only had a chance from a set-play.
‘I brought Ali Crawford in to give us that bit of quality when we get into good areas. His goal was a fantastic finish and it’s great to see him get a consistent run of games.’