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FRASER Forster admits he’d rather not repeat his ‘La Gran Muralla’ performance at Wembley in the League Cup final against Manchester United.
In November 2012, the Saints goalkeeper delivered one of his most iconic displays as he helped Celtic to an epic 2-1 win over La Liga giants Barcelona in the Champions League.
As a result, the Spanish press labelled him the ‘La Gran Muralla’ - The Great Wall.
Now, Forster revealed that while he’d like to be Saints’ cup final hero, he’d rather not build another Great Wall.
That night Forster denied the Catalan giants’ finest attackers in Lionel Messi, Alexis Sanchez, Andres Iniesta, David Villa … the list of superstars goes on.
Messi did score in the 90th minute, but Forster was nevertheless the hero of the night.
His superhuman performance allowed former Saint Victor Wanyama and Tony Watt to score at the other end to gift Celtic an unforgettable night.
Forster was a marvel and the Spanish press could do little but to give him a name befitting of his display.
It’s rare a goalkeeper is rewarded with such praise.
But such is the trade goalkeepers deal in that, often, the busier they are the more vulnerable and under pressure their team is.
“You want to go out and play well, but you don’t want to over think things,” he explains. “After all you can only do what you can do in a game.
“It would be nice to play like I did that night, but at the same time it would be good to go out and not touch the ball for 90 minutes and win 1-0.
“However the game goes, you’ve just got to go out and give it everything. If you do that you won’t have any regrets.”
Saints have certainly had no regrets so far in their League Cup campaign. They didn’t concede a goal in their five games on the way to Wembley.
The 28-year-old made a spectacular save at Liverpool to somehow claw the ball from the goal-line, but apart from that Saints’ goal has remained relatively untroubled.
Even without the inspirational Virgil van Dijk in the team, Saints remained solid during their famous night at Anfield.
Forster acknowledges centre-backs Jack Stephens and Maya Yoshida for their work that night.
“Everyone knows how good Virgil is and, of course, his injury is disappointing for everyone,” he said. “But ever since Jack has come in the team he’s done really well.
“The way him and Maya performed at Liverpool was fantastic and we were on the back foot for the best part of 90 minutes.
“They defended really well and as a partnership they get on really well and work very hard.
“They’ve been fantastic ever since they’ve been together and with Berty (Ryan Bertrand) and Cedric (Soares) as well that back four is strong.”
The towering 6ft7in keeper will be able to call upon the “unique pressure” he felt while playing for Celtic when Saints go for their first major silverware in 41 years on Sunday.
Forster grew up in the North East where he played for famous youth team Wallsend Boys Club, which has produced a long list of the region’s finest players, and then Newcastle United.
He was shipped out from St James’ Park on loan to Stockport, Bristol Rovers and Norwich City, before two season-long stays at Celtic eventually saw manager Neil Lennon sign him permanently in 2012.
At the Bhoys Forster won the Scottish Premiership in three consecutive seasons, as well as the Scottish Cup in 2010/11 and 2012/13.
“When you’re at Celtic there’s a real unique pressure on you,” he said. “It’s a good pressure.
“Whether it’s a league game, cup or Europe you’re expected to win and dropping points isn’t really acceptable.
“That’s a fantastic pressure to have on yourself.
“You go to the final and have that pressure on you. You’re expected to win it. But you get used to it at Celtic. It’s a huge club and that’s what’s demanded of you.
“When you’re battling with Rangers in the league and they’ve played at lunchtime and won, you know you’ve got to go out and win, or if you’re drawing 1-1 in the final minutes you know you’ve got to go and try and win.
“It’s a fantastic pressure and that’s what it’s all about.
“It’s hard to explain the pressure in Scotland unless you’ve been a player and played up there yourself.
“Down here it’s just a fantastic achievement to get to the final and to be playing Manchester United. We will go in as underdogs.”
After a hugely successful time at Celtic, Saints splashed £10m on the England international in the summer of 2014.
It didn’t take long for Forster to realise that St Mary’s was home.
“As soon as you step through the door you realise what a special club it is, it’s just got a special feeling to it that not many clubs have,” he said.
“When you meet the chairman and the owner you realise how ambitious they are and how much they want to keep the club moving forward.
“I’m proud to be involved in it. I can’t thank them enough for putting that faith in me and bringing me to the club to be part of something special.”
Forster had to battle back from a ruptured patellar tendon in his first season at the club, eventually defying medical predictions, that said he’d be out for a year, by coming back after just ten months.
Soon after his comeback in January last year he completed his finest performance to date in a Saints shirt with a series of world class saves in a 0-0 draw at Arsenal .
He is now ready to stop another one of English football’s big guns and help write another incredible chapter in Saints’ recent history.
“It would mean the world to me [to win the cup],” he said. “In fact, it would mean the world to me and everyone.
“We’ve put in a lot of hard work and we’ve obviously been a on a great cup run.
“It just shows how far the club has come over the past seven years. It’s going to be a real reward.
“We know Manchester United are on a great run and have fantastic quality within their team, but for us we can look back at the last couple of years and see the results we got against the big teams.
“We’ve done really well and there’s no reason we can’t be confident and go into it full of belief.”
Certainly, having not conceded yet in the League Cup, there is a lot of belief in defence.
“It’s a great achievement for the team [not to concede],” he said. “It’s credit to the whole team, how we’ve defended set pieces, how we’ve defended front to back.
“It’s something we can be very proud of and we need to keep it going.”
Forster did not feel under pressure when he faced Barcelona, and he won’t feel under pressure taking on Ibrahimovic, Pogba and Rooney.
He said: “There’s no pressure on those games because that’s what you dreamed of as a kid, to go out and play against the best players in the world.
“In those games you’re not thinking. There’s no time.
“To go and do that in a cup would be something special, but there’s no pressure on you because that’s why every kid gets into football – to play in those games.
“On a night like that against Barcelona everything went my way.”
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