Ridgers aims for another big-match clean sheet

Goalkeeper Mark Ridgers is seeking to become part of an exclusive club by frustrating the visitors when Scotland under-21s meet Italy in a friendly at Easter Road tonight.

The Hearts youngsters has been a key figure in a so-far unbeaten European Championship qualifying campaign which has seen Billy Stark’s men take four points from Holland to sit one point behind the Dutch with three matches remaining.

Now the Hearts goalkeeper is aiming to shut out the Azzurri.

“Italy is a great nation, World Cup winners not that long ago,” Ridgers said. “I’d be happy to take a clean sheet and a quiet game – any goalkeeper would. Not many people can say they’ve kept a clean sheet against Holland and Italy.”

In an excursion from the under-21s’ usual home at St Mirren Park, which has hosted the recent series of Euro qualifiers, this evening’s match takes place in the capital. In the most recent outing in Paisley, Ridgers played his part as Scotland held firm in a 0-0 draw with Holland, having last November gifted the Dutch an equaliser in the Scots’ 2-1 win in Nijmegen.

Ridgers said: “I was disappointed to lose the goal but it tested my character. I’ve seen better keepers than myself make mistakes. It was a case of giving my head a wee shake and I thought I handled it quite well. As long as I don’t keep making the same mistake, I know I’m improving and learning.

“It made a lot of people take notice and, when we played the home game against Holland, the crowd were fantastic, they wanted to see what everyone was talking about.

“For us as a team we’re down to earth and we’re just doing our jobs. We’ve got a great group of lads, putting on good performances and, hopefully, we will continue that.”

The Italy clash is a warm-up for next month’s crucial meeting with Bulgaria in a European Championship qualifier, with September meetings against Luxembourg and Austria to follow.

Although the Scots are unbeaten, three draws from five matches could prove costly with only the winners of the 10 groups and four best runners-up advancing to the play-off stages.

Ridgers is set to line-up against two friends, and sometime foes, Paul Hanlon and David Wotherspoon, who scored the winner in Holland, when Hearts meet Hibernian on 19 May in the first all-Edinburgh Scottish Cup final since 1896.

Hanlon and Wotherspoon are bith regulars for Hibs and Ridgers said: “When we’re playing for Scotland it’s a different situation than with Hearts and Hibs when, for 90 minutes, we wouldn’t be friends.”