Paul Jones is aiming to crown a memorable week with a clean sheet at home to Tottenham tomorrow.

The Saints keeper was this week named as the Welsh Footballer of the Year ahead of Ryan Giggs and Charlton winger John Robinson.

It was voted for by the Welsh sportswriters and Jones (pictured right) received a crystal rose bowl which now sits alongside his Daily Echo Saints Player of the Year award for 1997-98.

He said: "I knew I was in the top three but I had no idea I had won until the awards ceremony in Cardiff. I was absolutely delighted when it was announced.

"It is a great honour in my first full season for Wales and to finish ahead of Giggs is quite an achievement.

"I just hope now I can follow that up with a clean sheet and a win against Spurs to help us build on the win at Aston Villa.

"We have only lost one of the last eight now and our team performances are getting better and better. It was disappointing only to draw at Wimbledon where we should have hung on but we are learning from our mistakes.

"It is a concentration thing more than anything but we are defending better as a team and now we need to beat Tottenham to keep the momentum going."

Meanwhile Latvian hot-shot Marian Pahars, who has scored in seven of his last 10 games for club and country, believes Saints can edge it tomorrow provided they play as they did at Villa Park.

He said: "That was our best away performance this season and if we play the same way then I think we can beat Spurs.

"I have not played against them before so I don't know too much about them apart from the fact they have good players in David Ginola and Sol Campbell. But it is down to us and if we are right then we can win."

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.