DREAMS HAVE COME TRUE
Gordon: All I wanted was to play again.. a Treble is unreal
TWO YEARS of agony and three trophies he will remember for the rest of his life. Celtic keeper Craig Gordon will hang up his gloves one day and reflect on the fact he wrung every ounce of professional fulfilment from his career. The pride of the Scotland number one was palpable as he savoured the Treble at Hampden and his starring role in The Invincibles. On the sodden Hampden turf Gordon, 34, sank to knees that had once threatened to compromise his career as he clutched the matchball to his chest before Bobby Madden blew the final whistle. He had repelled Aberdeen’s last attack, just as he had thrown himself on several occasions throughout the game to deny the Dons their own date with destiny. Gordon has never shrunk from accepting a challenge and it’s entirely fitting he was rewarded for turning around a career that looked in serious jeopardy when injury saw him cut from Sunderland in the summer of 2012. He spent two years on the outside looking in, even accepting a coaching post with his pal Ian Murray at Dumbarton, but refused to give in on his hopes of returning to the big time. His self-belief was rewarded as he joined a select breed of Celtic players to have played in a domestic grand slam after a season in which they have gone 47 domestic games undefeated. Gordon said: “I’m doing myself justice now, ‘Craig Gordon, it’s just a shame that...’ That was close – to come back and achieve something like this, I could never have hoped for it. “At one point I was just hoping I could get another game of football under my belt, but to go and play in an undefeated season with three cups? You simply can’t get any better. “It’s true, I couldn’t even have dreamed of this in September when I was out of
the team and playing behind Dorus. It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster even this season, to fight my way back. “However, every time I’ve been asked to do it I’ve managed to respond. It’s a great achievement, one I’m very happy about and I’m sure I’ll remember this season for the rest of my days. It’s the best feeling ever. How do you go about beating this, an undefeated season, three trophies? We couldn’t have done a great deal more. “To be a part of it is something very special and something I’ll always remember. “How do we better this? With great difficulty. We have to try to go into Europe and do even better. We put up a good show this season but to go and qualify for the next stage would be an improvement and also try to do this all again.” Gordon had only picked the ball from the net once in four previous games against Aberdeen during the season - Dorus de Vries played in the 4-1 win in August - but had his work cut out at the national stadium. He was helpless when Jonny Hayes slotted Aberdeen in front, but pulled off decent stops from Niall Mcginn, Kenny Mclean and Graeme Shinnie and provided a safe pair of hands when the Dons launched their last, desperate Hail Mary into his box after Tom Rogic’s goal. He added: “We’d been knocking on the door for the last 10 or 15 minutes and I thought it was going to maybe go into extra-time. “We felt as if we were in control but you never know, there’s always one counterattack that could lead to goals. “They had a few chances in the game and both goalkeepers had to make a few saves. It was quite open so we were never in full control, although I felt we were the team more likely to go and win it. “It was just a massive relief to get the goal towards the end. Aberdeen played well. They put on a good performance, they gave us everything they had. “We had to defend and at times we had to make saves so it was everybody pulling in the same direction. “We stayed calm, we had to remain positive. “We knew we had to be careful and build the play properly. “We created a lot of chances and on another day we might have taken two or three and made it a bit more comfortable. But I’m sure they could say the same thing. It was a fairly close game.”