Keeper Shone

He kept St Johnstone out but could be dropped for the next game; the Challenge Cup Final against the same opponents.

Saturday's game was only goalkeeper Sean Murdoch's sixth start for the Pars but more important for him was the statistic that it was his first league shut out for the club:-

"The point is great but the main thing was the clean sheet. We have conceded a lot of goals in the last few games so the biggest plus was the clean sheet to be honest."

Sean was thrown on in the UEFA Cup tie against BK Hacken when Roddy McKenzie was injured but he had a nightmare debut conceding a valuable away goal when the bounce of the ball deceived him and let Jonas Henriksson in for a 57th minute goal. Paul Gallacher was brought in on loan from Norwich City but then when Paul injured his shoulder in training on 24th October, Sean was back between the sticks for the two defeats from Stirling Albion and Livingston. He felt that his team produced an improved performance against St Johnstone:-

"We conceded twelve in our last three games which by all means is terrible by any sort of standards. I thought the boys were brilliant, it was much better today."

The keeper did let a Kenny Deuchar header past him just before half time but was relieved to have referee Scott MacDonald disallow it:-

"It was a definite foul. I spoke to Scott (Wilson) after it and he said that he was all over him; the ref got it spot on."

The 21 year old played eleven times in the previous First Division season. That was when he was on loan to Hamilton Accies and he achieved shut outs on five of those occasions including games against Gretna and Dundee. He knows the division well and has warned all along that the 2007-08 campaign would be no push over:-

"The Manager has pointed out that he wants aggressive players; he wants people playing for the shirts. I think the boys showed that today. Everyone says that we have got the players but it is about the work rate as well. The boys have seen now that the First Division is quite a hard league."

Sean was happy that the point from McDiarmid Park takes pressure off Manager Stephen Kenny and the team:-

"There is always pressure when you are not producing results but he has been good with the boys to be honest. He has just been his usual self trying not to let the pressure get to the players. We are the boys who are on the park, it is up to us to turn it around and show how good a team we are.

"The spirit is there and they are definitely fighting for the Manager. He is a good Manager, he has a good track record - he's not getting results but that is a start. We get a wee break and then we go into the cup final in a couple of weeks time. The whole town will get a lift; it's only the Challenge Cup but it is a cup final and I don't know how long it is since they lifted a cup."

The answer of course is twenty years ago when the club picked up the SFA Youth Cup and now Sean is hoping that his success against St Johnstone will mean that he is not dropped when the sides next meet at Dens Park on Sunday 25th November:-

"I think I have given the Manager a wee bit food for thought. We shall see what happens, Gal is a great goalie."

Sean in action in the Scott Thomson Testimonial match
v Darren Fletcher and Manchester United