Craig Gordon

CAPTAIN GORDON

Good afternoon everyone and welcome back to Tynecastle!

First of all, I would like to start by thanking everyone who was fortunate enough to attend our Premier Sports Cup game against Cove Rangers this past Tuesday. To have fans back inside Tynecastle for the first time in 494 days was phenomenal and you really spurred the boys on to victory.

I have to admit I got a bit emotional when the entire stadium sang the Hearts song 10 minutes before fulltime. To hear that again after so long was really special and all the boys were talking about it in the dressing room at full time. We know you’ve missed it but believe me, we’ve been longing for it as well.

We were pleased with the performance against Cove Rangers and personally I was delighted to break the club record for most consecutive clean sheets (nine), as well as the most minutes without conceding.

I knew going into the game that I had to get to the 86th minute of the game in order to break the record as well as keep a clean sheet. When Craig Halkett went down with a knock on 84 minutes I was desperate for his treatment to last at least two minutes! I may have ever so slightly encouraged him to take his time.

This afternoon is another opportunity for us to fine tune our game ahead of the Premiership opener against Celtic later this month. It’s safe to say I’m a tad familiar with today’s visitors, the team I joined from Hearts back in 2007.

They will provide quality opposition this afternoon as they gear up for a push for promotion to the Championship. We were in the Premier League for the full five years that I was there and it’s disappointing to see them in the third tier now. That being said, I firmly believe they’re in good hands with Lee Johnson, an exteammate of mine here at Hearts.

I really hope they’re successful in their bid to get out of League One this season because Sunderland is a huge club that deserves to be much higher than it is. They’re the size of club that’s capable of back-to-back promotion. They’re a Premier League club in terms of their stadium, facilities and Academy of Light. Everything they have is set up for the Premier League and I hope they get back there as soon as possible.

Enjoy the game everyone!

Craig Gordon