Leeds United goalkeeper Andy Lonergan was pleased to finally keep his first clean sheet for Leeds and he believes it showed the side have the bottle after their 1-0 home win over Portsmouth on Saturday.
Leeds had conceded fifteen goals in seven games prior to Saturday, with the defence coming under intensive scrutiny, especially after conceding three in the second half in the draw at Brighton the previous week.
Despite Leeds leaky defence this season, Lonergan has been in outstanding form in the Leeds goal and he is quickly becoming a fans favourite.
Speaking in the Yorkshire Evening Post, Lonergan said, “I`m very pleased and it was just so nice to keep a clean sheet.
“We`d done a lot of defensive work in training ahead of the game, such as dealing with crosses into the box and you could see we`d worked on that by our performance. It rounded off a good week.
“Winning 1-0 showed we have a bit of character and bottle.”
In a relatively quiet game for Lonergan, he still had to be on his guard when making two fantastic saves during the game.
A Greg Halford header in the first half looked to be heading for the corner of the goal, until a full stretched Lonergan managed to claw the effort away.
Deep into injury time, Lonergan again had to be on his toes to tip over a Liam Lawrence cross that was drifting into the top corner.
Lonergan has made the number one jersey his own after arriving in the summer from Preston North End.
He faced competition from fellow new signing Paul Rachubka and he was also under pressure after the sale of Kasper Schmeichel in the summer upset the Leeds faithful.
Leeds fans were questioning the clubs decision and ambition to replace Schmeichel with Lonergan and Rachubka, but Lonergan has shown the fans that the clubs decision has paid dividends with the current Leeds number one looking a much better all round goalkeeper than Schmeichel.
His form has even had former Leeds United legend Eddie Gray stating that he could force his way into the England squad with a shortage of good English goalkeepers in the Premier League.
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