Hearts star Craig Gordon on seeing Brora result from his hotel room, Scotland goal and summer plans

Craig Gordon was back between the sticks for Scotland in the national team's last game against the Faroe Islands. Picture: SNS

The 38-year-old missed the club’s defeats to Queen of the South in the league and Brora Rangers in the cup.

Gordon was in a hotel room on that infamous Tuesday night when team-mates struggled at Dudgeon Park.

“It wasn’t ideal," he said. “I obviously didn’t expect to come back to us being out of the Cup, but these results can happen and unfortunately we were on the receiving end.

"There wasn’t much I could do from the hotel room. It would’ve been nice to have played and tried to help the boys out but it wasn’t to be.

"I had to watch the results coming in and make sure when I came back I was doing the best I could to lift everybody, reset us to finish off this league.”

Scotland goal

While Gordon had a watching brief for the World Cup qualifiers against Austria and Israel, he was handed a start in the 4-0 win over Faroe Islands.

In doing so he checked off one of his aims on returning to Hearts.

He said: “I was happy to play again and do my part in what was a must-win game, helping get the result and have what has turned out to be a reasonable start.

"We’d have liked a little bit more. It’s not bad. We’re in a good position going into the next games, we can go into the Euros with a bit of confidence from those games.

“I came to Hearts with a number of goals and that was definitely one of them. I wanted to get back in the Scotland squad, play for Scotland again and win the league. I personally have ticked off quite a lot of the things I set out to do at the start of the season.

"For me, it’s been successful. For Hearts to get promoted back into the Premiership at the first time of asking is still a degree of success.

"There are positives along the way. I know that everybody is not quite going to see that right at this moment in time. There have been some bad performances along the way, and we accept that.

"We are moving in the right direction. Maybe not as fast as everybody would like but we are certainly getting there.”

‘Mini pre-season’

Hearts’ season is due to finish 45 days before Scotland get their Euro 2020 campaign underway against Czech Republic at Hampden Park.

Gordon has a training plan already set out to ensure he reaches the tournament in the best shape possible.

“I will still be training,” he said.

"I’ll take a couple of weeks after the last game and then I’ll be back in here. I’ve already set up plans with the fitness coaches here. The under-18s here are still playing matches so I’ll be able to come in and train with the goalies here.

"As you know, there are great facilities here at Hearts to be able to continue training right through. I’m actually quite looking forward to it. It will be like a mini pre-season, getting ready for the Euros and giving it our best shot.”