Levein to give gloves to Gordon

GRAEME CROSER

HEARTS boss Craig Levein is set to hand Craig Gordon the chance to establish himself as the club’s No.1 goalkeeper.

The Scotland under-21 internationalist made his first start of the season in Saturday’s 4-1 victory over Partick Thistle and will retain his place for tomorrow night’s CIS Cup clash with Falkirk.

The youngster replaced Tepi Moilanen between the sticks after the head coach decided to drop the Finn in the wake of a couple of below-par performances.

Levein stopped short of saying Gordon will have the gloves for keeps but he is a huge admirer of the 20-year-old and expects him to become the club’s main man in years to come.

He said: "I felt Tepi had made one or two errors recently which he was first to admit himself.

"Craig came in at the weekend and he did reasonably well. He didn’t have a lot to do because we defended reasonably well and he didn’t have much chance with the goal.

"He has been very patient and he has a lot of talent.

"I’ve not said to him for definite that he is now first choice and in my mind he is still very much making his way.

"However, I do believe that in time he will become the No.1 goalkeeper at this club.

"It’s up to him to prove with his performances that he deserves to be there and he has that chance now."

On Saturday Levein made four other changes to his starting XI in the wake of the 5-0 defeat to Celtic a week earlier.

Alan Maybury, Andy Webster, Phil Stamp and Graham Weir made way for Robbie Neilson, Kevin McKenna, Paul Hartley and Andy Kirk and, given the resultant performance, there are unlikely to be too many changes for the Falkirk game.

Mark de Vries has shrugged off a thigh knock sustained at Firhill and will play, but the back injury which saw Stamp miss out has still not cleared.

Levein added: "Mark trained yesterday and should be fine but Phil is still struggling with his back problem.

"He didn’t take part yesterday and it doesn’t look like he’ll be involved tomorrow night."

Levein was heading for France this morning to spy on UEFA Cup opponents Bordeaux who are in Cup action against Strasbourg tonight.

Taken from the Scotsman