St Johnstone manager, Craig Levein, has admitted that one of the biggest dilemmas he has left for his summer squad rebuild is whether to go back into the transfer market for another goalkeeper.
Josh Rae hasn’t put a foot wrong since arriving from Airdrie.
And Levein will be hoping the trend of him not being greatly tested in the Premier Sports Cup will continue when two from two Saints travel to Alloa on Tuesday night.
But the Perth boss, who has brought Ryan Esson to the club as an interim goalkeeping coach, knows that he lacks an experienced option between the posts, with Rae and Ross Sinclair both 23 and next in line, Craig Hepburn, only 19.
“I was speaking about it to Ryan today,” said Levein.
“I’ve been pleased with Josh.
“He made a couple of really good saves at Arbroath (a pre-season friendly) and there’s been nothing negative in either of our cup games since.
“He can only deal with what presents itself in a game.
“I’ve still got the thought in my head that we might need another, more experienced goalkeeper.
“We’re looking at that currently.
“When that cut-off point comes to make a decision, I don’t know.
“Josh is playing for his place but he’s in the driving seat at the moment.”
Knock-on effect
Levein added: “We’ve got two other goalkeepers who are young.
“There’s more to it than who is going to be good enough to play for our first team.
“Ross hasn’t had a lot of football and Heppy has had a bit at Cowdenbeath.
“Ross got game-time up north in pre-season but now we’re into the competitive stuff, Josh will remain in goals.
“It was the safer choice with Ross not having played much over the last couple of years.
“If we decide to go with what we’ve got, Josh gets an injury and one of those guys goes in, it could easily happen that the pressure would be too much.
“Then we’d be in a right hole.
“You also have to factor in whether any of them need to go out on loan if they’re not first choice.
“There are a lot of questions.
“Once I make the call about whether we bring a more experienced goalkeeper in, things will start to happen from there.”
Injury update
Captain, Kyle Cameron, will miss the Alloa game but fellow centre-half, Sam McClelland, will be available.
“Sam is feeling better,” Levein reported.
“He was really struggling before Saturday’s game and in the warm-up.
“He’ll be involved tomorrow.
“Kyle will probably be the weekend. He’s improving but we won’t take any chances (with his tight thigh).”
Saints have taken care of Brechin and Morton in a professional manner and Levein wants that trend to continue.
“Alloa will cause us problems on their own pitch, I’m sure,” he said.
“They’ve got a mixture of youth and experience and have nothing to lose.
“We need to be disciplined and work harder than them – do that and we’ll have a very good chance of winning again.
“If we don’t, we’ll leave ourselves open to dropping points.”
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