Jamie Langfield
Jamie Langfield, Aberdeen’s stalwart goalkeeper, is on the brink of history.
How so? Because all his clean sheets this season have brought his total by our reckoning to 93 clean sheets, leaving him just two behind the all-time SPL record of 95 posted by Allan McGregor and into second place on the list, ahead of Stefan Klos’ 92. Jamie also has his eyes firmly fixed on another milestone.
“I am close to playing 300 games for Aberdeen. If I do reach that it would be a great achievement for me.The clean sheet record would be nice to get as well. Goalkeepers do celebrate clean sheets like strikers celebrate goals, definitely. At least, I do!
“I’d love to break the record, and then set myself the next little goal. It is a big achievement to get close to the record as I am not an Old Firm goalkeeper. If you look at the guys up there at the top of the list, every other keeper has played for Celtic or Rangers. It is something that I am very proud of at a club I have loved playing for. To break the record would be a feather in my cap, but a lot of it is down to the boys in front of me.
“I really must mention Russell who has stood in front of me for a lot of the games over the nine seasons I have been here. He epitomises everything that is good about this football club. He loves being here. He is still unbelievably fit. I have seen the test results, he is one of the quickest boys in the changing room running wise. He is an incredible athlete, a wonderful defender with superb organisational skills and is a true captain. I am very honoured to have been playing behind him for so many years. The other boys round about him have also come on so much. Andy, Mark and Michael would also have only good things to say about Russell, they owe him a lot”.
There is an iron clad spirit to this current Aberdeen side, one which bristles with confidence and the obvious belief that they could be on the brink of achieving something very significant for the Club. Little wonder that Jamie is having the time of his life.
“It is probably the most I have ever enjoyed playing football. The 2007 UEFA Cup run was completely different. Like a lot of people at the Club, I probably did not fully appreciate what was happening at the time. I appreciate it a lot more now because of what happened to me with my illness a couple of years ago. I am just thoroughly enjoying it.
“I think the reason for that is a bit of everything. Maturity, confidence, I am in a good place at the moment with my family life, and goalkeepers do get better with age. All the boxes are ticked. I also have a manager and coaching staff that like me and have confidence in me, and that is a massive thing for any player. I have a bunch of teammates, who slaughter me for my tweets on Twitter and cane me for my gear, but I get on well with them and they have trust in me on the pitch.And then there’s Jim Leighton.
“The fact I am a little bit older does not stop him hammering me! He is a very good goalkeeping coach. We have a great bunch of goalkeepers here. Nicky Weaver is a top, top man. He has been unfortunate with injuries over the years but is still a very good goalkeeper. Having someone of that level competing for the number one jersey has brought out the best in me. I know he can step in at any time. I have learnt so much from Nicky. He has a lot of experience to pass on and he has worked with some of the very best goalkeepers, as he pointed out in the interview he did for the Partick programme. He also has a wonderful temperament for a goalkeeper.
“There is also Danny Rogers and young Craig Burns, so there is a good mix of personalities and we all enjoy training together with Jim. Goalkeeping is the hardest and loneliest position in the team. When things are going wrong for you, there is no one else to bale you out. Basically you are on your own! There is a goalkeepers union and it is important all the keepers at the club get on.
“They say goalkeepers get better with age and I do think that is true. A lot of teams are now looking for that type of goalkeeper. I will keep on going for as long as my body will let me. As long as I stay fit and healthy I am sure I can do that.
“As a goalkeeper who has been in the game for a long time, I’ve seen plenty of changes. When I was younger, you did not have the sport science side of things. You went to the gym if you wanted to! That is why I think the young players coming through now at this club will be the ones who really benefit from it. If you go down south, all the clubs have it. Maybe in the past it is a reason some of the young players have wanted to leave. Now they cannot use that as a reason as everything is so professionally done. The manager has given every player, young and old, the chance to go and better themselves.
“I hope it helps me too. I still see myself playing for a good couple of years. I see the likes of Steve Banks at St Johnstone, he is in his forties. You have the likes of Mark Schwarzer, as well as our own Jim in the past. A lot more older goalkeepers are still playing.
“My contract is up at the end of the season. I have said I do not want to go anywhere else but it is up to me to continue to play well and then it is up to the coaching staff to decide. I do not want to go anywhere. If I could, I would see my career out at Pittodrie. It is a great place to be. It always has been, but under the new gaffer, it has stepped up a notch.
“What has the manager has brought in a level of professionalism and organisation on and off the park. The manager and Tony have put a massive emphasis on the sports science side of things. They have brought in Graham Kirk to take that a level further and although he has only been here for a short period of time, he has been absolutely brilliant.
“We have no excuses because of the way we are looked after at this club. We have all the products, kit, equipment, food and drink needed to help with our recovery after a game, the weights and gym sessions – everything is tailored to your needs.
“There is also a great amount of video work done. On a Friday at away games, our Video Analyst has everything ready for the team meetings but you can also then go and sit down and look at your individual match analysis. Every week, I sit down with Greg Thomson our Performance Analyst and Jim Leighton and go through the game from the Saturday. It allows you to look at your mistakes, your flaws and your good bits. It is something that has come into football so much. We also use the Prozone software which goes into an incredible amount of detail.
“The very small details are so important. The manager does not want any excuses. When we walk out onto the pitch, he knows he has done everything possible for each of us to be in the best shape and to be prepared as best we can. If you then get beat, we as players can have no excuses.
“I think one of the main reasons we beat Motherwell in the League Cup was because of our fitness levels and our organisation. On the park, they are sticklers for organisation. If someone is out of place at a corner or a free kick they will soon let you know about it. They do not believe you should lose a goal from there.
“Their man management is also very impressive. They can speak to you as a group collectively and they also take players aside for a chat. They are very good with the young boys. They tend not to be too hard on a young boy in front of everyone and knock his confidence. They will take him aside and speak to him one to one. They understand that some players need a cuddle and encouragement whilst others need a bit of push now and again.
“The squad they have built with the mixture between the senior players and the young boys is working really well.They understand it is a squad game. They understand it is important to keep players happy and part of things even if they are not playing.You saw the reaction of the players at Motherwell who were on the bench and those who were not even stripped. They were jumping on top of the manager and running about the park celebrating as if they played the game. That showed you how a good manager can get a squad together.
“There is not a face in the dressing room moaning because they are not playing. We have a squad this season and not eleven individuals. Because of the strength of the squad, you have to keep playing well. You have to play to a level of performance and a produce a high work rate every game”.
Never was that more evident than in the heroic performance at Motherwell that put us into the last four of the League Cup. How does that game stack up among Jamie’s near 300 for the Dons?
“We spoke on the bus on the way back up the road and Russell said it was probably in his top three in terms of how he felt after a game. For me, it would be right up there as well because all the odds were stacked against us. To come away with a 2-0 victory, against one of the top teams in the county over the past few years, after playing for 80 minutes with 10 men, for me it’s an incredible result. I could not sleep that night, my head was all over the place because I was still buzzing. It is definitely up there.
“We have to accept a lot of people want us to fail, there is a very different kind of pressure on us this season. People are making out that we are the favourites to win the cup, that we are going to finish second in the league but we do not speak about that. The players don’t speak about that in the dressing room. The manager does not speak about that. He just wants us to go out and play every game as if it is a cup final.
“You saw that coming through in that Motherwell game. It does not matter who we play, whether it be Celtic or Partick Thistle in a league game or a cup match, every game has to be played with the same level of intensity. The manager demands that of us. People out there are waiting for us to fail but as a team and as a squad we have this unity now and we are keen to prove these people wrong.
“We want to do it for the supporters too because they’ve had to wait too long for good times to come back to Pittodrie. The away support this season has been incredible. To take 2,600 people down to Motherwell on a Wednesday says it all. There weren’t that many people at some of the other quarter-finals! After the red card in that game, they realised that we needed them. The more that they came into the game, the more belief we had. We did believe we could do it but that belief grew with the backing they gave us. Belief is a massive thing. Players need to believe they can do it, whatever obstacles are put in your way. I did not believe we were going to lose the game.
“It just shows you that when things are going well at this club and you are doing the right things, the fans get behind us in a large numbers. We know are going to lose games, we know that is going to happen but if we put in the right kind of performance and give our all every week, we will always be supported”.
Amen to that.
Amen to that.
Amen to that.
