GORDON OPTIMISTIC HEARTS CAN DIG IN

By Chris Bertram, PA Sport

Click here for full match report

Craig Gordon hopes Hearts' 1-0 victory over Motherwell in the Bank of Scotland SPL demonstrated what the club means to the players.

The Tynecastle side ground out an ugly win at Fir Park to arrest the slide which had seen them lose their previous two home games to SPL new-boys St Mirren and then Sparta Prague in the UEFA Cup.

The Hearts players got together for an impromptu huddle before Sunday's kick-off and subsequently showed plenty of grit on the way to securing a hard-fought win thanks to Jamie Mole's 69th-minute breakaway goal.

The three points moved the Jambos up to second in the table and eased the pressure on Valdas Ivanauskas, Hearts' latest head coach, who is popular with Gordon and the rest of the players.

The Scotland goalkeeper said: "The huddle was just to show we do care and that we want to play for this club and we want to make it as successful as possible.

"We want to play for this manager. We want to show we are fighting for ourselves, the fans, the coaching staff and the manager."

Ivanauskas was glowing in his praise for Gordon after the game, suggesting there may not be a finer goalkeeper in Europe.

But the modest stopper insists his form is down to fortune as well as good goalkeeping.

He said: "I just get on with my job. It's nice to hear that sort of thing. But next week it could go horribly wrong, so I'll just concentrate on the job in hand.

"I've just got to keep it going. The last couple of games I've got a little bit of luck with balls bouncing off me and going round the post and over the bar from close range.

"In midweek I had another few saves - which were quite fortunate - by getting something in the way. It's good for you when things are going like that. I'm sure it will go against me at one point.

"Motherwell went a goal behind and threw a few bodies up the park to get a goal and a point for themselves. There were plenty of balls in the box, and we had to do a lot of defending.

"When that happens a couple of balls will inevitably drop to them in the box, and fortunately I managed to keep them out."

Motherwell midfielder Keith Lasley insists the Steelmen can take plenty of encouragement from the unfortunate reverse against the men from Gorgie.

Maurice Malpas' side remained bottom, but it was a much better performance than that against Inverness the previous week when the Highlanders romped to a 4-1 triumph.

Lasley and Jim Paterson were denied by brilliant close-range saves from Gordon.

Lasley said: "The boys were gutted for different reasons this week. Last week we were desperately disappointed with the performance we produced - but this week we can take a lot of positives.

"We competed very well with them, and Craig Gordon had to pull off a couple of good saves at a telling time in the game - that's why he's Scotland's number one.

"That's the way it goes sometimes when you're down at the bottom. If we'd been on the back of a couple of wins it might have deflected in, so we could do with the rub of the green.

"We wanted to show the dressing room is together - because last week it might have looked like we weren't ... we played like strangers.

"We're all in this together - players, coaching staff and the manager - and I hope we showed that we're trying for each other and giving it our all.

"The manager was happy with our attitude and our endeavour despite the result."

Taken from sportinglife.com