THE New Saints boss Scott Ruscoe was equally as pleased with his side’s clean sheet against Cefn Druids on Boxing Day as he was with their five goals scored.

Saints earned a comfortable victory away at Cefn on the back of a home defeat against Cardiff Metropolitan.

Greg Draper netted a hat-trick against Druids to take his tally to 16 for the season, with Danny Redmond and Adrian Cieslewicz adding the other two goals.

But the performance in front of goal was not the only thing that made it a Boxing Day to remember for Ruscoe, with the defensive display helping his side to a positive result.

“The clean sheet was very important, [Cardiff Met] scored two goals against us,” he told TNS TV.

“We’ve conceded 19 goals which is not something you’d like at this time of the season.

“We’ve previously let in 14 or 15 goals, so to get 19 against us means we need to have more stability about us, and we need to grind out some more clean sheets.

“We got another one today and we’ve now scored more than 50 goals in the league, so that’s good going at this stage of the season.”

After the Cardiff Met defeat, Ruscoe was hoping his side would bounce back with a good performance and believes they did exactly that.

“We needed that,” he said. “The performance was very good, I thought we had lots of opportunities in the final third and played some very good possession football.

“We looked solid at the back, so it was everything we would’ve asked for before the game; nice to get another five goals too, and it was pleasing for Greg to get a hat-trick.

“He’s always in the right places, and if we create chances, he’s always going to score.

“I thought our wingers in the first half were a thorn in the opposition’s side, and they were linking up well with our midfield and Ryan Brobbel in the number 10 position, so I was really happy with that.”

Saints will face Druids again in the return fixture on Monday, December 30 at Park Hall Stadium (kick-off 7.45pm).

Despite their Boxing Day win, Ruscoe believes the Cefn men could pose a different threat in their upcoming meeting.

He explained: “They’re not going to just turn up and expect us to beat them.

“They might have a few players back and they will want to give it a go and make an upset.

“I can’t remember the last time they beat us at home, but we certainly did a good job in this game and it puts us in a good place ahead of the return fixture on Monday.”

TNS are currently top of the Cymru Premier table by one point.