SAYS HOOPS KEEPER GORDON
IN AUSTRIA WITH CELTIC
OVER a fortnight had passed before Craig Gordon watched a replay of the late goal which Scotland conceded in their Russia 2018 qualifier against England.
The time that had elapsed didn’t make seeing the Harry Kane strike that denied his side a famous victory any easier for him to bear.
The goalkeeper was criticised by many for failing to come off his line and pluck the Raheem Sterling cross out of the air before it reached Kane.
He defended his actions at the time and having pored over footage of the incident, is still, positive he made the right decision.
Yet Gordon, who is in Austria with the rest of the Celtic squad on a pre-season training break, has admitted the national team, who had come from behind at the death to lead 2-1, collectively switched off after going i n front with dire consequences. “I only saw it again for the first time a few days ago,” he said. “I probably still think the same way that I did at the time after seeing it again. “I thought Kane was going to head it, but by the time he lets it drop to the point where he can volley it, the distance is really close. It’s close to the goal, but for me to attack that ball in the air it would have been another seven or eight yards to get to it above his head height. “They are split-second decisions and I won’t get every one right in the season, but I got most of them right through 60 games.
“When you look back you may wish you’d done something else, but I’m comfortable in my own head why I made that decision. You can discuss if it was right or wrong, but the process of me thinking should I stay on line or go for it was the right thought process. I can take that.
“But I think we did lose concentration. We cleared the freekick 30 yards from goal before it came in and I think we thought that was us. We were waiting on the final whistle. It didn’t come. The ball came back in the box and we lost the goal. There is a possibility we lost our concentration and we didn’t see out the game.
“I probably thought we had won it when I saved the freekick, although that’s not the right thing to think at that stage. If we’d just managed to keep hold of the ball for 30 seconds we’d have done it.
“We gave it our best shot and it wasn’t good enough. We didn’t think we’d be in that situation after coming from behind. Whether it was mental or physical we didn’t manage to get through the situation.”
It was, despite holding the Group F leaders to a draw and picking up what could prove to be a valuable point, a bitterly disappointing way for Gordon and his Celtic team-mates Stuart Armstrong, Scott Brown, Leigh Griffiths and Kieran Tierney to round off what had been an exceptional season.
THE quintet, who had helped the Parkhead club go undefeated domestically and win only the fourth treble in their history, had been looking to cap their annus mirabilis on a huge high. Instead, they suffered one of the most excruciating denouements to any game they had been involved in.
The 34-year-old, though, stressed the game had been consigned to the past and would have no lingering effect on those involved.
“It doesn’t knock on to Celtic stuff,” he said. “We played in a totally different way in that England game to the way we would play here. It was very defensive to keep England out for most of the game. We didn’t carry a great deal of threat.
“When we come back here into Celtic then we know how to go about our business here. Mentally it’s fine. It was a draw that should have been a win, but we’re OK. That’s football. You take it on the chin and get on with the next game and my next game is to build for the Champions league qualifier.
“If anyone had said a 2-2 draw was there before the game