Ivanauskas is grateful to 'solid' Gordon for precious three points

VALDAS Ivanauskas, the Hearts head coach, last night paid a glowing tribute to goalkeeper Craig Gordon for earning him a precious victory at Fir Park.

With club owner Vladimir Romanov looking on from the directors' box, Gordon's heroics gave Hearts only their second win from their last eight games and subdued speculation that Ivanauskas is poised for dismissal.

"I'm very happy to win after the big pressure of the last two weeks," said a clearly relieved Ivanauskas. "The three points were the most important thing today, how we got them didn't matter. The performance, spirit and fight of the squad was altogether today.

"Craig Gordon's performance was nothing new for me. He is the best goalkeeper in Scotland, maybe in Europe. I have never seen a young goalkeeper as calm and solid as Craig. He is just great."

The Hearts players engaged in a huddle when the final whistle blew yesterday, before saluting their supporters. Gordon, who humbly played down both his exceptional display and the praise from Ivanauskas, said it was intended as a message of support to the coach.

"It was a spontaneous thing," said Gordon, "and we wanted to show that we are still unified behind each other and the coaching staff, that we want this club to achieve what it should. We want to play for the manager, we showed that today. The performance didn't matter, it was the result which counted today. We just had to get a win any way possible.

"It is nice to hear those sort of comments from the manager, but next week it could all go horribly wrong for me, so I don't pay much attention to it.

"For the first save today, I just closed the guy down as quickly as I could and he smashed the ball off my shoulder. For the second, I put up my left hand instinctively. I didn't get much of a touch on the ball, but luckily it came back down into my arms.

"It is always difficult coming off a European game in midweek. Motherwell put a lot into the game today and we had to match that. It was effort that got us the result. Sometimes you have to grind them out.

"A lot of teams are struggling away from home this season, including the Old Firm, so if we can keep picking up points on the road and get back to our usual form at Tynecastle, we will be fine."

Motherwell manager Maurice Malpas, whose team have now lost six of their seven SPL games this season, was left to bemoan the injustice of the outcome and a serious injury to defender Brian McLean who faces another lengthy spell on the sidelines with knee ligament damage.

"We didn't get what we deserved today, but it's a results business and it was Hearts who got the goal and are away up the road with three points," said Malpas

"It is very frustrating to lose when you produce a performance like that. The better team didn't win today, but the only thing for us to to do is keep battling away.

"Craig Gordon was their best player and that maybe tells you something. He made two or three great saves. It's what he's paid to do, but it would be nice for us if he threw one or two in from time to time."

Taken from the Scotsman