Craig Gordon opens up on Hearts' relegation battle and why Europe can help

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The goalkeeper says people must face reality

Domestic issues are causing concern at Hearts, where the dreaded word “relegation” can still draw a sharp intake of breath. Bottom of the Premiership and with only two wins in their last eight games, league difficulties are causing enough stress and concern. Europe offers another focus ahead of the final Conference League tie against Petrocub on Thursday night.

Goalkeeper Craig Gordon has been over the course many times in continental competition with Hearts and Celtic, although propping up Scotland’s top flight is a new experience for the 42-year-old. He is not one to shirk the reality of the situation. While some might hesitate to utter the ‘R’ word, Gordon openly admits Hearts are in a relegation battle.

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“We are because that's where we are,” he said. “There's no getting away from that. We wouldn't be in this position if we'd got the points on the board that we feel we should have done, but we haven't. We can't call it anything else. We need to start winning matches and until we get ourselves far enough away from that end of the table that it doesn't become a possibility, then that is exactly what it is.

“I reckon it's probably the same for everybody, probably right up to fourth, still potentially looking over their shoulder that a bad run of form could see them drop down the table. At this moment in time, it's us. that's at the bottom and we need to change that. Everybody's in it. We need to win football matches, that's it. Until we do, the noise is going to be there and people are going to be talking about it. If we don't want people to talk about it, we know what we have to do.

“We have to get the points on the board and the only way we can do that is by performing and getting the results that get us out of it. It's up to us to not accept this situation as a group of players. A few of them have been in this situation before, in that dressing room. It's not nice. I was at Sunderland and we managed to avoid relegation. We were down there a few times, so that was probably the closest I came. It's not a nice environment, it's not nice coming in to work every morning when things are not going well. But it's up to us, we need to change that. We've got a great opportunity to do that tomorrow night.”

By that, he means beating Petrocub to progress to the Conference League’s knockout round play-off, and then use the confidence derived to help Hearts’ league form. The Moldovan champions are already eliminated from the competition and have only one point from five league-phase ties so far. On paper, it looks a fairly straightforward assignment for Hearts. Except nothing is straightforward at Tynecastle right now.

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“I think it's going to be a tough game. I don't think it's going to be one where we're going to score loads of goals and have a comfortable evening,” said Gordon. “It's going to be something we're really going to have to work for and rely on everybody. Subs coming off the bench, it'll need to be a full team performance to make sure we get the results. I'm not expecting it to be easy. There will be difficult moments in the match and we're going to have to find a way to come through them and win it.”

Victory would give added hope ahead of league games against St Johnstone and Hibs at home, Ross County away and Motherwell at home. Hearts would gain plenty kudos by reaching the next stage of the Conference League, but the ultimate priority is surviving in Scotland’s top flight.

“We need to deal with the situation. This is where we are right now. We need to go out there and win this European match and take that into the next couple of [league] games. It's a big period for everybody,” Gordon pointed out. “We've got a few of those games at Tynecastle. Over the rest of this month, it's important that we put in the performances and get the results that we need to kick-start the campaign.”

Asked why the Edinburgh club’s campaign has played out so dismally, Gordon was coy on specific reasons. “I don't think there's one reason,” he said. “When things like this happen, there tends to be more than one. To put your finger on one reason or a series of events, I think it's pretty difficult. Obviously, we are where we are now and we need to solve it. We need to find our way out. We're the people that are in this predicament and we've got the ability to turn it around and still get something out of this season. We need to do that and we need to do it fast.”

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Gordon experienced plenty harrowing moments in his first spell at Hearts during the Vladimir Romanov era. Despite complete turmoil behind the scenes at Riccarton on many occasions, on-field results were nothing like this season’s. “It's different. The team on the pitch was still performing reasonably well despite what was happening off the field,” recalled Gordon. “That was perhaps a galvanising factor in terms of gelling the team together to get the results. At this time, it's the opposite of that. It's the results that are not coming. It's definitely a different time.”

The keeper is defiant, though, on Hearts’ prospects of improving. “It's challenging but there's still a way out. We'll fight to find the way out of it and I'm still confident we've got the ability to be able to do that. Thursday is a fantastic game to be involved in. To have the ability to get through to the next round of a European competition - that's hardly ever happened in the history of Hearts to get to that stage. You'd probably come back to Bayern Munich [in 1989] for something like that to get that far in the competition. Then you never know who you can get.

“There's still an awful lot to play for. We've got to see this as an exciting opportunity to get out there, have a go, get after the game and go and make things happen. Be the hero. Be the person that scores that goal, that makes that crucial tackle to get everybody else going and start heading in the right direction. That's a fantastic opportunity for us tomorrow night to start that in motion.”

Hearts players would be forgiven for harnessing a siege mentality in the wake of criticism from all quarters for their domestic performances this term. Gordon isn’t against the idea. “We'll take anything to turn things around. You'd think, perhaps, when we go and play against a team that goes down to 10 men it might be that. It didn't turn out to be that way [at Kilmarnock on Sunday]. We have to show a big response. We've got the opportunity to do that in a European fixture. that means so much.

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“From that point of view, we're lucky that we get to go out and do that again. We know that it wasn't great for anybody on Sunday. I can't begin to imagine how the fans felt in the stand behind my goal in the second half. We've now got the opportunity to, not put that right because that should never have happened, but to go out there and have a right go, get everybody behind us, get through to the next round of the European competition, see who we get in the next round and take that into the next couple of home games here - where we can start to win matches and really start to look forward to the future and the months ahead.”

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