Craig Gordon resumes journey towards 50 caps

Scotland substitute goalkeepers Matt Gilks (left) and Craig Gordon enjoy a wartm drink on a cold night. Picture: SNS

After all, he had to manoeuvre himself into a position where he was noticed among all other eligible goalkeepers. He had to first shine at Hearts and then hope the Scotland manager at the time, Berti Vogts, was alert to this form. But then Gordon hadn’t reckoned on having to start again. He hadn’t envisaged he would be struck down by a rare patella tendon injury that threatened to end his career before he had even reached the age of 30.

Four years after his 40th appearance for Scotland, Gordon has finally resumed the journey towards the milestone of 50 caps, one reached by only two Scottish goalkeepers to date: Alan Rough and Jim Leighton. But the first target is simply to win cap No number 42. Given the competition, it is a sizeable task. Asked after his second-half appearance against England on Tuesday whether he thinks manager Gordon Strachan has settled on a No 1 or not, with David Marshall starting all four Euro 2016 qualifiers to date, Gordon smiled: “Depends which ’keeper you ask!

“I believe if I can keep working and knocking on the door then I still have a chance to play in qualifiers,” he added. “You don’t know what can happen to the other ’keepers. I have to concentrate on myself and we can see what happens.”

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Gordon has experienced “what can happen to goalkeepers” in an extreme form. Fraser Forster, his former clubmate at Celtic for a brief period earlier this season, walked by Gordon on Tuesday night as the players were being interviewed following England’s 3-1 victory, and wished him well for the coming months.

“It’s brilliant for Craig,” said Forster, who earned his third England cap at his former home of Celtic Park. “I think that he deserves so much credit for working very hard during that couple of years he was out.

“He had to really dig in mentally and good luck to him: he’s a top ’keeper and he’s also a really nice guy.

“We got on great together and it’s good to see him doing well and getting back into the Scotland team.”

If he didn’t appreciate it before, Gordon now knows the value of each cap. The one earned on Tuesday has given him more satisfaction than any of the others. “I’ve had to work so much harder for this cap than any of the 40 that have gone before,” said Gordon. Returning to club football, which he has managed so successfully with Celtic, was the first ambition. However, the thought of a return for Scotland, he said, “has driven me on”.

“That was definitely a goal of mine – to get back with Scotland,” he added. “I didn’t know where I would be playing my club football or if I’d have to drop down a level to get a bigger club – I didn’t know the route. But playing for Scotland again was the one thing that kept me going.”

Of course, he could have asked for a smoother start than being asked to rummage around the back of the net within two minutes of his return. Wayne Rooney’s close-range header did not give him a chance of preventing England going two goals ahead. It was the first goal Gordon has conceded for Scotland since October 2009, when Japan scored twice past him in Yokohama. Gordon looked the part as he dived to his right in an attempt to save Rooney’s effort.

“I had no chance whatsoever – the dive was for effect as I knew I would never get anywhere near the header,” he admitted. It was a rude re-introduction to life as an international goalkeeper, and he conceded one more, again to Rooney, before his 45 minutes were up. “I didn’t have much of a chance to savour the experience– I was picking the ball out of the net after 90 seconds!” he said.

“But standing at the side waiting to come on was probably that moment when I knew it was finally going to happen.” He turned round and saw his mother, father, wife and four-year old daughter, who has never known her father as the Scotland goalkeeper, sitting in the stand, ever supportive. “I knew then that that was me back as an international player,” he said.

• Comment: Craig Gordon return a silver lining on dark night

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