Connor Goldson spoke to the media after the 2-0 win over Ayr United. Here is what he had to say.

What did you make of the game today?

I’m happy that we’re through and I thought the performance was good. It was solid and we got a clean sheet. We controlled 80 minutes of the game. We maybe lost it for 10 minutes in the first half. But we deserved the win and it was a professional job.

Do you understand why the fans are dreaming of trophies?

We’ve got a massive game on Wednesday and that’s all we’re looking forward to. It’s one game at a time, the manager demands that of us. He demands that we focus on ourselves and the football we’re playing. We bring that to every game now. We want to excite the fans on Wednesday, play at a tempo and keep this run going.

How do you assess the start after the winter break?

It’s been perfect since the break. We’ve played five games and won five. We’ve had four clean sheets so we’ve done everything we set out to do.

What did you make of Cortes and Diomande?

They’ve been very good. In the first half today Oscar was the best player on the pitch. We’ve all seen his qualities, he comes both ways, he goes short and long - and he shoots with both feet. He showed what a valuable player he can be for us. It’s Dio’s first game since November but in training he’s shown his quality. His touch is lovely between the lines, you saw that today when balls were fired in at him. We need to get him up to speed as soon as possible. They will both be valuable members of the squad.

Did that game feel more comfortable than it might have in recent years?

Yeah, to be fair Ayr came and were braver than a good few teams who come here. They tried to play football and put numbers forward. Now the gaffer bangs on about when we are attacking our organisation behind the ball. I think we are so much less prone to counterattacks, we manage to play in waves and keep the ball in the opposition half. Being able to strangle teams when they come here. That's the way he wants to play, every time a ball is cleared it has to be us first and counterpress as quickly as we can. Then at home, he wants us to strangle teams and get them as far back as we can. Making sure we get wave after wave, we're limiting counterattacks and I think that was our problem before, we were conceding too many chances on the break. 

Clean sheet record must be a positive?

It is, it is a collective thing for the whole team. We always say it starts with our striker and our No.10 pressing forwards and that makes it a lot easier for us. We get our press right and we know most teams will go long and it's up to us to defend that. It's a lot easier to defend than teams passing through us and getting into our box. It starts with high up the pitch. That's our job we want to keep clean sheets. When the attack is scoring we keep on them to do their job and keep defending for us. At the end of the day they will get judged by their numbers and we also want to work on ours.