Craig Gordon

MANAGER NOTESCAPTAIN GORDON

Good afternoon Jambos

Welcome back to Tynecastle for what is always a special date in the calendar as we pay our respect to those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Next Sunday will see players, staff, board members and supporters gather at Haymarket for the annual Remembrance Service. I’ll be away on Scotland duty and will therefore unfortunately miss the special day, however, I know every member of the squad is looking forward to attending what is always a very poignant service. Today, however, our focus is solely on returning to winning ways following a disappointing display against Aberdeen last Saturday. I thought both teams cancelled each other out in the first half but unfortunately we couldn’t get to grips with the game in the second half, despite taking a 1-0 lead into the interval. It was a disappointing performance from everyone and I don’t think you can single out one or two players. We win as a team and we lose as a team. We don’t want to make any excuses for that performance, we simply hold our hands up and admit we must do better – starting today. We’ve analysed our performance at Pittodrie and worked on various aspects of our play in training all week in a bid to be fully prepared for this afternoon. The best teams shake off defeats quickly and that’s our aim today. We’ll take confidence from the fact we beat Dundee United 2-0 at Tannadice back in August. We put on a good display that day and arguably we should have been out of sight in the first half. Today is a different game but our approach will be the same: We want to take the game to our opponents, get the fans right behind us and get three points on the board. On the topic of fans, I have to thank you all for your incredible support at McDiarmid Park and Pittodrie. To take more than 3,500 supporters to Perth on a Wednesday night is nothing short of incredible and your backing throughout made it feel like a home tie. We then had another sold out away end up in Aberdeen on Saturday and you continue to give me and the boys a real boost both home and away. Thank you! Enjoy the game

Craig Gordon