Stech relieved that Jones kept faith

The Czech stopper had endured a sticky spell recently with a handful of errors against Newcastle United, Lincoln City and Notts County costing his side goals.

However, although there had been some murmuring amongst supporters that deputy James Shea should have been given an opportunity, Jones stuck with his summer signing from Sparta Prague.

It paid off on Saturday as Stech made a number of stops, two second half ones catching the eye in particular, on the way to his 13th clean sheet of the season in the league during a 1-0 win over Morecambe,

Speaking afterwards, Stech said: “It’s obviously really nice when the gaffer trusts you and when you do make an error, he sticks with you and he believes in you.

“That’s a massive relief for me that he still feels I’m important for this football club and I’ve got his back, so I’m really happy.

“We had a chat. He said, ‘it’s been two games, so get your head down, train hard, do your basics’ and obviously this week it really paid off.”

On the competition from Shea, who impressed massively during Town’s Checkatrade Trophy exit at the hands of Peterborough earlier this month, Stech continued: “We push each other every day in the training, and Sheasy’s been doing really well, when he had a chance to play in the Checkatrade Trophy games.

“It was disappointing to make the error at Newcastle and we conceded a few goals, which has been annoying for me as a keeper, as any goal, even if I can’t save it, I’m still annoyed if it goes in.

“So I’m just really happy at the minute that from last week the Chesterfield game and conceding two goals, we worked hard this week and kept a clean sheet.

“I made a couple of good saves, he put the pressure on me and I had to perform, so we kind of bounce off each other.

“I’m just really happy, keeping another clean sheet and managed to make a couple of saves too.”

Boss Jones was quick to praise the former West Ham and Yeovil stopper too for his display against the Shrimps, saying: “That’s why we persevere with him.

“He’s been in a sticky patch, but he’s come through that now and couldn’t do anything about last week’s defeat.

“He was excellent (against Morecambe) and that’s what we expect from him because of the standards he’s set, so we’re delighted.”

Meanwhile, captain for the day Johnny Mullins added: “Stechy’s there to make big saves when we need them.

“Small margins and small moments in games are massive, without sounding too much of a cliche, those saves were huge and thankfully we got the goal and hung on, so a big thanks to Stechy for the saves.

“He has massive confidence, is always talking, is a great keeper and comes for crosses. I really enjoy playing with Stechy and we all do.

“He breeds confidence throughout us all and that radiates to the team hopefully.”