Town Not Setting Points Target
Tuesday, 25th Mar 2014 06:00

Town goalkeeper Dean Gerken and his team-mates have resisted the temptation to set themselves an end-of-season points target.

They go into action against Derby County at Portman Road tonight with their play-off hopes boosted by Saturday’s 2-0 win at Brighton, another team competing for a coveted top-six finish.

Gerken, 28, said: “We haven’t talked about targets because you don’t really know what you need. Look at last season and the relegation battle that had clubs going down with 50-odd points. It was ridiculous.

“Each year is different and you can’t work out how many points you are going to need. At previous clubs I have sat down and worked out how many points we will get, based on the results I expected us to get, but I’m not doing it here.

“It’s all a bit of a lottery and we’re only interested in putting points on the board and hoping we get enough to take us to where we want to be.”

Gerken kept his ninth clean sheet in 33 appearances this season as goals by Tommy Smith and Daryl Murphy earned Town a 2-0 victory on the south coast, the perfect tonic following the 3-1 home defeat by Wigan the previous week.

He added: “That win goes down as probably the best of the season. It was a perfect away performance. They looked very good, very dangerous, early on but we absorbed what they had to throw at us.

“The back four have been brilliant week in, week out, but the whole team helped to nullify them and get behind the ball. They had a lot of possession, which you would expect, but they didn’t break us down too many times after the initial bombardment.

“It was always going to be that kind of game down there. You might not have a lot to do but that’s the hardest thing for a goalkeeper. You’ve got to be in the game without being in the game, if you see what I mean. There’s a lot of following the ball and mental concentration.

“We all know our jobs and it showed on Saturday. It was a huge win because Brighton don’t concede that many goals and they’re a good, strong team who had been in good form.

"They’ve climbed up the table in the last couple of months so to go there and put in a performance like we did was terrific. There would be other teams looking at that result and also thinking how well we had done.”

Photo: Action Images

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