Gordon salutes Hearts

It was a day of dignitaries and dignity for Hearts yesterday. Lesley Hinds, Edinburgh's Lord Provost, and her councillors supplied the former while Scotland goalkeeper Craig Gordon provided the latter.

The Tennent's Scottish Cup-winning squad were honoured with a reception at Edinburgh's City Chambers before parading the trophy through the West End. They eventually arrived at Tynecastle, where they performed a celebratory lap of the pitch in front of a capacity crowd of 17,400.

Those like Celtic captain Neil Lennon, who have compared the behind-the-scenes events at the club to a circus act, would have found it appropriate that supporters were entertained by clowns, jugglers, balloonists and men on stilts. The only thing missing was the sight of George Burley and Graham Rix in an exploding car.

Gordon delivered an honest assessment of events at Hampden, while also looking at the bigger picture.

"That was one of our poorest performances," the 23-year-old admitted. "I think a long, hard season has taken its toll. Everyone was looking for Gretna to fold, the longer the match went on. We were feeling the effects of trying to get to the Champions League."

The player was in no doubt, though, that winning the cup for the first time since 1998 was the greater achievement.

"This is even better, because we have something to show for it," he said. "We know it'll be difficult to get into the group phase of the Champions League, but there's no reason to think we can't make it. I hope Vladimir Romanov will invest more to take us to the next level."

Gordon, whose dry humour is often used to good effect on an occasional diary for the club's website, was as droll when basking in the afterglow of his latest success.

"It's not often that Scotland and Hearts win a trophy on the same day," he quipped.

"I watched the game [against Japan] before our match: maybe the Hearts guys won't get back into the national side now."

Gordon's tongue was in his cheek, of course, but there was still no doubting his sincerity. "This has been a great season for us," he said. "We've challenged the Old Firm, and it's about time somebody did that."

Taken from telegraph.co.uk