GORDON: WE SHARE BLAME FOR EURO EXIT

By Chris Roberts, PA Sport

Hearts goalkeeper Craig Gordon admits the Edinburgh side only have themselves to blame for missing out on the glamorous Champions League group stages.

Head coach Valdas Ivanauskas raged at Russian referee Iouri Baskakov after the nine-man Jambos crashed out to AEK Athens 5-1 on aggregate in the final qualifying round.

Neil McCann and Julien Brellier - whose first card was for wearing an earring - saw red on a controversial night.

But Gordon admits that the scoreline does not lie - even if the referee was on AEK's side.

"You have to get on with it," he said.

"The referee makes the decision how he sees fit.

"All the players are disappointed by what happened but in the end if you look back over the two legs we can't complain.

"They were the better side, no matter what the referee's decisions were, over the two legs."

Gordon revealed Brellier was warned about wearing earrings but he still thinks the officials were far from fair.

The Scotland number one added: "We were told that jewellery is something that is being cracked down on this year.

"The rule is a bit silly although we were told that before the game but one or two of their players were wearing jewellery and nothing seemed to get done about it.

"It was an oversight on Julien's part but it's probably the official's job to check that.

"But if those are the rules; you have to abide by them."

Hearts now go into the UEFA Cup but Gordon insists the pain will take some time to ease.

"We feel hard done by," said Gordon.

"We have had three players sent off in two games so we are not going to win.

"We feel things did go against us but hopefully in the UEFA Cup things will go for us.

"I haven't had any sleep really and I am still very disappointed.

"I still felt we had a chance going across there last night and winning but unfortunately it was not to be.

"It's very difficult to try with 11 but then with 10 and nine men it is virtually impossible.

"It is disappointing from that point of view but we have to pick ourselves up for Saturday (when they play Inverness)."

Taken from sportinglife.com