Forster targets van der Sar clean sheet record

Fraser Forster broke Bobby Clark’s Scottish league shut-out record then immediately set his sights on going past Edwin van der Sar’s world-beating effort.

The Dutch star van der Sar went 1,311 minutes without conceding a league goal for Manchester United in the 2008-09 season.

And yesterday, having moved his own personal tally to 1,214 with a clean sheet against Hearts, Celtic’s number one was happy to make his long-time idol his next target.

“Edwin is someone I have massive respect for,” said the Englishman with a smile. “I have always admired him. He is a top, top keeper, who just seemed to get better as he went on in his career.

“You watch him play and he is the perfect modern-day keeper a fantastic shot-stopper who is brilliant with both feet.

“It is obviously a very good record that he holds and I would love to go past it.”

While Celtic’s fans at Tynecastle went wild as he reached the landmark, the man himself insisted he was concentrating too hard on the game to notice.

“I wasn’t actually aware of the time, to be honest, because I was concentrating on the game,” he said.

“Obviously, when I did realise, I was delighted because it is a great achievement and something we are very proud of as a club and as a team. There have been some fantastic keepers and the record I have gone past was something Bobby Clark was very proud of.

“It really is a team effort. Efe Ambrose and Virgil Van Dijk are two world-class centre-halves and we also have two fantastic full-backs.

“The back five as a whole is very proud of the record and massive credit has to go too to our goalkeeping coach Stevie Woods.

“Me and Woodsy sat down at the start of the season and came up with goals of what we wanted for the season. This obviously wasn’t one of them, but it’s been a real bonus to go on this run.

“It is something nice to look back on in the future and hopefully it will stand for a while.”

The Englishman also insisted he wouldn’t be distraught if he came up short in his effort to top van der Sar.

“The run has been a real bonus but you can’t get too tied up in it because all it takes is a deflection, a penalty and that is it over,” he said.

“So if, and when, we do concede, we won’t be gutted because we know it is part of the game. First and foremost, it is about winning the game as a team.

“Now we go to Aberdeen on Tuesday and our target will be to see if we can keep it going there.

“As far as England and the World Cup goes, I know I just need to keep working hard and staying focused on the goals I set at that start of the season.”