Gordon's glad he took a leap of faith

AS Craig Gordon was leaping like a salmon to deny Rob Jones and Hibs a winning goal on Sunday, the thought entered his mind that for once he might be powerless to prevent the inevitable.

The Scotland goalkeeper has turned the production of gravity-defying saves into a weekly habit this season, however whilst airborne with his left arm at full stretch in the dying minutes of the Edinburgh derby he flirted with the notion of luck eluding him.

Jones had climbed above Steven Pressley to direct a powerful header to Gordon's left from Kevin Thomson's cross.

In those few milliseconds as the ball screamed towards the net from the defender's head, there wasn't a supporter inside Easter Road who didn't believe Hibs had secured their victory.

Perhaps surprisingly, Gordon admits to being one of them. "I was confident I could get to it. I just didn't know if I was going to get enough on the ball to keep it out," he said.

His fear of failure and that of the Hearts support behind him was, as always, misplaced. If Gordon goes for it, he virtually always gets there somehow.

"I just managed to get my fingers to it and that was enough. I think the ball stayed in play actually but if that had gone in there would have been no way back for us.

"We were dead on our feet with only minutes left. We'd been playing with ten men for a large part of the second half and were clinging on a bit towards the end.

"It's a very difficult task to try and close a match out when you're a man down.

"I always realised in the back of my mind that I was likely to be called upon at some point to preserve the draw."

The timing of Gordon's intervention ensured it became all the more valuable to his club, who stay in touch at the top of the SPL despite a five-point deficit after their 2-2 draw in Leith.

Losing ground on Celtic is an acceptable consequence at Tynecastle this week following a match in which Hearts could have been buried beyond redemption inside the opening 20 minutes.

"In the end it was a good point after the start we made," noted Gordon.

"We ensured it was very difficult for ourselves with a very poor start, although you should give credit to Hibs.

"They began quickly and got on top and scored their goals while they were on top.

"We had to weather the storm and we didn't manage to do that, we played very poorly in the first 20 minutes and were probably fortunate it was only two at that time. Hibs had a couple of other chances and could possibly have had us dead and buried at that stage.

"When we went in at half-time we were starting to get back involved.

"The play was more even during the last 15 minutes of the first half and there were a few words said in the dressing room. However, we've dug in and shown a lot of character to get a very useful point in the end."

Prior to his acrobatic clawing away of Jones' header, Gordon had been involved in another portion of the game's drama when he challenged Ivan Sproule for the ball on Hearts' 18-yard line.

The Hibs support bayed for a penalty with the goalkeeper having gone to ground and taken the Irishman with him, and again the 23-year-old displays a brutal honesty in giving his assessment of the incident.

"I'm not sure if I did or I didn't touch the ball in all honesty.

"I just dived out and it was one of those where you just shut your eyes and hope that he hits you with the ball. I really had no idea whether I actually touched it, although Ibby [Tall] was saying he felt it had touched me. There was definitely contact with their player, so if I got a touch on the ball at the same time then that's probably what saved me.

"I don't think their player was going to get round me and put it away, I think Ibby was there waiting to clear so perhaps the chance had already gone and that may have been a factor in the referee's decision."

With the drama over in the meantime, Gordon will be granted a few days' downtime after his recent exertions on behalf of club and country. Champions League qualifiers have been followed by vital SPL fixtures, UEFA Cup games and international trips to Lithuania and Kiev since the beginning of August for a goalkeeper who is emerging as this nation's finest since Andy Goram.

However, even the superhuman require rest as some stage or another. "A few of the international lads get a couple of days off this week and it's really needed, I can tell you.

"It's not just the amount of games, it's the high-profile games and how much they take out of you. We might have been suffering from that a bit on Sunday because we had quite a few lads away on international duty the previous midweek. Now we can rest up ahead of next weekend."

It is perhaps a consequence of Gordon's relentless series of high-priority matches this season that footballing luminaries like Arsene Wenger have spoken out in praise of him.

The Arsenal manager was at Hampden Park the weekend before last to see the Hearts goalkeeper repel Thierry Henry and David Trezeguet in Scotland's monumental 1-0 victory.

But don't expect the exaltation to go to his head. "Yes, it's nice because he is a big-name manager," admits Gordon, somewhat reluctantly.

"For him to comment on your performance is a great feeling but I have to make sure that my performances with Hearts and Scotland stay at a consistent level for people to continue talking about me. I'll just keep my feet on the ground."

Except when he's palming away net-bound efforts in the dying minutes of a derby, that is.

Taken from the Scotsman