Zander Clark: The two men playing a huge part in Hearts goalkeeper's rise back to Scotland squad

For long periods of his time in the Scotland set-up, Craig Gordon has had to fight for his place in the starting line-up.

Hearts goalkeeper Zander Clark has been called into the Scotland squad.

The Hearts goalkeeper has amassed an impressive 74 caps for his country and, competing with highly-regarded contemporaries such as Allan McGregor and David Marshall throughout the years, each and every one of them has been hard earned.

That experience could be a godsend to his training mate and current stand-in at club level, Zander Clark, as the 30 year-old vies to fill the void Gordon has left in the national side while he battles back from a double leg break. The former St Johnstone keeper, who received his first senior call up in August 2021 and has featured in Scotland squads a couple of times since, faces competition from Liam Kelly – another experienced understudy at that level – and newcomer Angus Gunn.

Scotland boss Steve Clarke has been coy about naming a favourite ahead of this month’s Euro qualifying double-header, against Cyprus and then Spain, giving all three the platform to prove themselves when the squad meet up this weekend, but the Hearts keeper will utilise all resources to ensure his mind and body are set for the challenge.

Craig Gordon and Paull Gallacher have played a big part in Clark's recent form.

“I speak to Craig every day when he's in,” said Clarke. “When you have someone of his calibre who has played at the top level for the vast majority of his career, it would be daft to not have conversations with him to try and pick away at his knowledge of the game. I'm 30-years-old but I can still pick up so much valuable information from the big man. There’s him, Cheesy [back-up keeper Ross Stewart], and Paul Gallacher, the goalie coach, who has been massive for me since I joined the club and who spent extra time with me when I first came in. He helped me to get extra sharpness and get my fitness back up to the standards that were required to play for a club like Hearts.”

But the next step is at international level. Clark knows how tough it will be to advance into the starting team but takes inspiration from Gordon, who has shown tremendous staying power, using the tussle with McGregor and Marshall as an incentive to dig deeper and deeper and drive himself forward. “You can look back over the last number of years – it probably feels like my lifetime – that you’ve watched either Greegsy or Marsh or Craigy. It’s been those three who have really produced top-level goalkeeping and have got us on the brink of tournaments and got us into the Euros, which came from a magnificent piece of goalkeeping from Marsh.”

Even before them there was plenty of back and forth between Jim Leighton and Andy Goram but, as a connoisseur of Scottish goalkeeping, if this marks another changing of the guard, he wants to be at the forefront of the Scotland gaffer’s thinking. “As goalkeepers we all know that only one can play,” added Clark. “But as the manager said, we have a good week of training to look forward to and it is up to myself, Angus, and Liam, to stake a claim. We will all be trying to show the manager that we are ready to go out and represent the country.”