Rookie Dundee goalie Harry Sharp is set for another chance to bolster his fledgling reputation this weekend.
The 21-year-old was a late call-up for Saturday’s trip to Aberdeen and put in an assured performance, despite only having played in four senior matches previously.
A save to deny Dons marksman Christian Ramirez with the score at 0-0 was a standout moment for the young goalie, though his clean sheet was spoiled by Lewis Ferguson’s penalty winner.
Sharp took the gloves in place of the more experienced Ian Lawlor after the Irishman was ruled out with illness on the morning of the Pittodrie clash.
Lawlor remains under the weather and is a major doubt for this weekend’s trip to St Mirren.
“Ian is still convalescing, he’s struggling,” revealed manager Mark McGhee.
“I don’t think he’ll be back for the end of the week.”
‘Up a level’
McGhee had no worries about throwing Sharp into a high-pressure clash at the weekend after positive showings against Motherwell, St Mirren and Rangers in March.
Sharp’s league debut also came at short notice as Lawlor came down with Covid-19 on the day of the clash at Fir Park.
The Dens boss credited goalkeeper coach Alan Combe for getting Sharp ready for first-team action and hailed a dominant showing by the young goalie.
“We were more than satisfied with Harry’s performance,” McGhee said.
“When he came in before I thought he did really well, never let us down once.
“On Saturday, he went up another level.
“That’s twice he’s come in short notice and he certainly stepped up. He’s been fantastic.
“Alan Combe is clearly doing good work with him, both technically and working on confidence and self-belief.
“Harry isn’t an extrovert type of boy, he’s quite a quiet character. He has a quiet confidence about him.
“That was thing on Saturday – the first time he came in he did everything technically we wanted but he didn’t really dominate.
“But against Aberdeen he looked like a man out there.
“I thought that was an improvement.”
‘Better than expected’
Sharp, too, hails from the Aberdeen area but there were no nerves at all from the young keeper.
That’s despite spending almost his entire senior career as third-choice at Dens Park.
His debut came back in 2019 as a second-half sub for the sent off Calum Ferrie in a Challenge Cup defeat to Elgin City.
Then came a long wait until March this year before injury to No 1 Adam Legzdins and illness for Lawlor gave Sharp his chance.
And McGhee is delighted to see the goalkeeper take it.
“After his last stint in the team we didn’t have any great fears that we’d be surprised by anything,” the Dundee boss added.
“He didn’t surprise us but, having said that, he was even better than we expected.
“We now have three keepers we know we can put in there without hesitation.”
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