DEVLIN: EVERYTHING WE DO THIS TERM IS FOR SKIPPER CRAIG

FOR Cammy Devlin, watching Craig Gordon suffer a seasonending double leg-break at Tannadice on December 24 was a harrowing experience. Subsequently learning that the Scotland goalkeeper had spent Christmas Day in a hospital ward in Dundee away from his young family merely deepened the Australia international’s sense of anguish for his stricken team-mate. Grabbing his mobile phone, Devlin (inset, bottom) swiftly made contact with Gordon (inset, top) and pledged to deliver a belated festive gift to the Tynecastle skipper ahead of his long road back to fitness. The 24-year-old told the veteran keeper that everything Hearts achieve in 2023 will be done in Gordon’s name — starting, hopefully, with an Edinburgh derby win against Hibs at Tynecastle this afternoon. ‘It was devastating what happened to Craig,’ sighed Devlin. ‘To see him go down like that... he’s Scotland’s No1, he was our player of the year last season, he is an inspiration to the younger boys, an inspiration to everyone, really. ‘So to lose him in that fashion was really sad. We are all gutted for him. ‘For Craig, having Christmas away from his family was just gutting. ‘He was in hospital on Christmas Day and that is just devastating. But I know he is back home now and, hopefully, he can celebrate Christmas with his family and his kids. ‘I texted Craig and I told him the team is going to get together and “the things we do are for you”. ‘To win the derby for him would be super special, but I think he would also be proud of us beating St Johnstone 3-2 last Wednesday. ‘It can be easy to drop points in these games when the pressure is on, but we showed how tight we are as a group. ‘What happened to Craig gives us added motivation to go on.’

In Gordon’s absence, Hearts called upon Zander Clark as they won their first league match at McDiarmid Park in 12 years to climb into third place in the table. An experienced player who has been called up to Scotland squads, Clark won the Scottish Cup and League Cup with St Johnstone in 2020-21. An Edinburgh derby with Hibs is unlikely to cause a sleepless night for the 30-year-old keeper. ‘Yeah, absolutely, Zander won’t be fazed,’ said Devlin. ‘He is a senior player. He came on at Dundee United after Craig got injured and he did really well and it was the same at St Johnstone when he made his first start. ‘He was excellent. He fitted in seamlessly. It just shows you we have good depth in this squad and it’s been used this season with the injuries we have had. ‘We thought, having the World Cup break, we would get players back, but then, at Dundee United, we lost Craig Halkett, Stephen Kingsley and obviously our captain Craig Gordon. ‘Things haven’t gone our way but you have to dig deep sometimes and I felt that’s what we did in our last match at St Johnstone. ‘We just need to be focused in those little moments to get to where we want to be — and that’s keeping clean sheets and closing off games. It’s been very hard with all the injuries and the European schedule but we are in the perfect place at the turn of the year.’ Devlin is now eager to give fans what they want in the derby. ‘These are the games the fans want to win,’ said Devlin. ‘It’s one of the biggest matches of our calendar year. If we play our stuff and stick to what we know we can do, we can go into the game very confident. ‘Since I’ve come to Hearts, I’ve not lost a derby — and I want to keep it that way.’