DANNY Rogers hopes that keeping a clean sheet against Arbroath can give him a platform to kick on after a tough spell on the sidelines.

Sam Ramsbottom replaced the Irishman for five games after a poor run of form.

The Aberdeen loanee says he had to be taken out of the team and admitted his ‘confidence was shot’.

However, Rogers is now determined to make the first-team place his own and says his clean sheet against the Red Lichties is only the start as he looks to get back to his best.

He told the Tele: “It was a tough five weeks sitting on the bench and not being involved.

“But I obviously got back in on Saturday and got a clean sheet and I couldn’t really have asked for much more than that.

“I didn’t have a lot to do to be fair but I thought whatever was thrown at me I dealt with relatively well.

“I was happy with that and I thought the boys in front of me were brilliant.

“I just need to kick on from here, though, because it’s only one game.

“When I came out the team we were getting beaten by five or six goals week after week.

“We’ve been getting better and we’re not far away.

“I kind of needed to be taken out the team because my confidence was shot, I’m happy that it wasn’t for too long.

“I just need to make the shirt my own now. Saturday was a decent start but I need to improve from here.”

The shot-stopper believes that Saturday’s win over Dick Campbell’s side was a huge three points as it meant that the Ton couldn’t slip behind the teams in and around them.

He sympathised with experienced defender Brian McLean who had to go off before Stephen Welsh came in to replace him.

He added: “We needed to win that game 100 per cent, it was a huge result.

“All the teams around us are staying around each other at the minute so if Arbroath had beaten us then we’d have been in trouble, so it was a big result for us.

“We changed formation and it worked really well for us.

“I thought Brian [McLean] played the role of sweeper fantastically up until he went off, even though it was only for 15 minutes.

“It was unfortunate that he had to go off injured.