CRAIG: I DID A SPOT OF HOMEWORK

CRAIG GORDON last night admitted Gretna deserved to win the Cup - but never doubted he'd come through the penalty shoot-out a winner.

The Hearts keeper has only ever lost one spot-kick decider and that was in a youth tournament.

And he revealed his secret is doing his homework

Gordon said: "I was confident I could pull off a save or two.

"I had information about Gretna's penalty takers and it worked against Ryan McGuffie.

"I knew about James Grady's normal penalties too. Even though he managed to beat me it was pretty much what I expected.

"With the other guys I just looked at their run up and tried to judge where they would go.

"I do research all the time. I'll go into most games knowing who the opposition penalty taker is and where they've put their last few.

"If you can gain an advantage by doing homework why not?"

Gordon admits Jambos were out of sorts. He said: "We were off the pace and Gretna deserved to win.

"They had the chances and I don't think anybody would have argued if they had won.

"But we have a great spirit and the lads were desperate to win. It was a massive effort to keep going.

"It's a great feeling. We did it the hard way but the history books won't say that. It's not sunk in that we'll be considered club legends.

"I'm sure we'll get a great reception going back to Tynecastle but we put the fans through the mill.

"They backed us all season and came to Hampden in their numbers so they deserve this."

Taken from the Sunday Mail