GHOST BUSTER

SCOTLAND No.1 Craig Gordon is still haunted by a humiliation he wasn't even a part of with his country.

Scotland keeper Craig Gordon celebrates

The keeper whose heroics went a long way towards beating France can't rid his mind of what happened the last time the national team pulled off a single-goal victory over a super power at Hampden.

In November 2003 the 1-0 victory over Holland that turned into a six-goal thrashing in Amsterdam four days later serves as a reminder to the Hearts keeper that pride really does come before a fall.

The Euro 2004 qualifier that summed up Scotland's split personality is what will fire Gordon up for producing another clean sheet when he plays against Ukraine on Wednesday.

Rab Douglas' nightmare in Holland won't be Gordon's cross to bear in midweek if the best Scotland No. 1 since Andy Goram has anything I to do with it.

Gordon has a maturity beyond his years and he demonstrated such after defying the French with a catalogue of top-class saves while admitting he also got the luck that favours the brave on other occasions.

He said: "The win over France was the top result of my career. But I'll always remember that thrashing in Holland which came after the country was still celebrating the win over them at Hampden.

"I think the difference this time will be the team spirit that exists under Walter Smith."

James McFadden's winner against the Dutch was even more unexpected than the victory over France because it came during the Berti Vogts era that left the Tartan Army not knowing what to expect from one game to the next. And they were proved to be horribly accurate when it came to their cynicism.

Now, under his successor, Scotland have slowly gathered momentum and developed into a unit who are at least hard to beat, and certainly don't look like caving in as their predecessors did in Holland.

Gordon plays for a club where the manager's name could be written in chalk on the door of his office because of the regularity with which the Tynecastle owner changes the man in charge. But in Scotland colours he is enjoying the stability that Smith has brought to the national team.

He said: "Walter has got to take credit for the way he's organised us at the back in particular. He spoke to the defenders at length before the game with France and everything he told us to do paid off.

"If we can defy a French team that had, at various stages of the match, Thierry Henry, Sylvain Wiltord, David Trezeguet and Louis Saha on the pitch in forward roles then it sums up how well we did our jobs.

"It proved to me that a good team can be better than a side full of highly-talented individuals."

Luck was the other factor that helped push Scotland across the finishing line, and Gordon wouldn't try to dispute that fact. The free-kick from Henry that rebounded from a post and then struck the keeper's head to carry the ball to safety instead of taking a ricochet off him and crossing the line for a goal was the outstanding example of fate lending Scotland a hand.

But nobody is ever without a rub of the green on occasion and the keeper wasn't about to apologise for his good fortune.

He said: "The French also missed their fair share of opportunities to score. We were looking for offside when Henry found himself on his own late in the game. Luckily for him, he was allowed to play on without the flag going up.

"Unfortunately for Henry, the header he was going for didn't come off properly and the ball hit off his shoulder. It was a great chance lost for them.

"They did drill another ball across the face of my goal in the dying moments, but I was never unduly troubled by that one.

"I can hardly believe what's happened to us, to be honest. It's a great feeling. You never know what you're going to get in this game.

"France played a lot of pretty football but they didn't create the number of chances you though they might. In the end it was a victory for a team with no superstars who work as a unit."

Now Gordon wishes to further enhance his reputation by denying Ukraine a result that would cut into the six-point advantage Scotland have over them in Group B.

He added: "We have to be happy with the way we're defending at the moment.

"There's a greater belief in our ability to hold on to the ball for longer, but we know there's a long way to go before we can assume anything about qualification for the European finals.

And our next job is to frustrate Ukraine in the same way we did against the French.

"We know we're not perfect but we also understand that there's a basis to work from in the immediate future.

"The reaction to the result against France has been brilliant for us as well.

"It was wonderful to see Sir Alex Ferguson in our dressing room at full time and I'll never forget the response from the crowd when Gary Caldwell scored for us.

"I turned to share the moment with the fans behind my goal and I was in a wee world of my own for a moment."

Taken from the Daily Record