Keeping Saints up means everything to local lad Gordon
Liam Gordon wears his heart on his sleeve, alongside the St Johnstone skipper’s armband.
After picking up two trophies in a dream season last term, the local hero’s halo has slipped during a troubled campaign this time round.
But the 1-0 midweek win over Aberdeen dispatched Tayside rivals Dundee back to the Championship after just one season in the top flight.
Now, after engineering a well-timed escape from the basement they had occupied for much of the campaign, lifelong fan Gordon is determined to grasp a Premiership survival lifeline via the play-offs.
Gordon admits the pressure which went hand-in-hand with last year’s cup finals was more enjoyable than the burden imposed by this term’s trials and tribulations.
But he is confident the Perth dressing room can handle the heat of back-to-back games with Inverness Caley Thistle as Saints bid to extend their 13-year stay in the Premiership.
The one-time Hearts youngster admits today’s trip to face Hibs has been overshadowed by the prospect of the play-off encounters.
But while boss Callum Davidson (inset) will be tempted to rest key personnel, Gordon is eager to get game time at Easter Road.
“We are definitely looking to keep the momentum going,” the 26-year-old insisted.
“We got the result and performance needed against Aberdeen to take us through to the play-offs.
“We were up against a team that can knock the ball about well but we sat in our shape, didn’t get frustrated and picked them off.
“It was good to get that result in and now we can focus on the play-offs. “Before the game there was all the talk about whether we could do it after Dundee’s win over Hibs the night before. I think we answered our critics. “It showed the character in the team.”
Gordon lives in the Fair City and knows what Saints fans have endured after the sharply contrasting highs of last season.
“It means everything to me to keep this club in the Premiership,” he said. “It might mean a little bit extra for myself as a local boy and now we have an opportunity in the play-offs. “But it’s not just me. There are guys with close ties to the club, others who have been here a few years and some just a matter of months. “But they all see the spirit and soul of the club. They get that from the fans. “Everyone is pulling in the same direction. They all want to keep the club in this league. It is where we deserve to be. I’d like to play against Hibs. I’m a professional footballer. You want to play every game.
“We are at that point where we want to keep the momentum going.
“I don’t know what the manager will do for this game.
“He might make changes but we have enough good players to come in and play at the level that is expected.”
The nerves will be absent at Easter Road for a dead rubber.
But with so much riding on the outcome, Gordon is braced for tension – on and off the pitch – over the two-legged play-offs.
Having hauled themselves out of the automatic relegation trapdoor with results since the turn of the year, he believes Saints have the necessary resilience in their armoury.
“It felt a nervy one going into the Aberdeen game. Relegation could have been on the line,” he noted.
“We needed to get the result required or it could have gone down to the last game of the season against Hibs.
“We handled it well. We went about our business in the right way.
“There could be nerves again but we have to calm ourselves down for the play-offs.
“We know what we are up against and we have to apply ourselves.
“There is so much at stake so there will be some nerves but that can be a good thing.
“We know it will be difficult against Inverness.
“But if we play the way we know we can, we should do well.”