Craig Gordon: 18-year Hearts quest and 'too long' message

Close your eyes and allow your dreams to take hold for a moment. Three games, 270 minutes, and three wins. That's the aim and the hope between now and the rest of the season. Scottish Cup success.

It has been "too long". The words of Gordon.

Twelve years since Hearts won silverware, two Championship titles aside, and that memorable day in May. Rudi Skacel and Ryan McGowan. Pa Kujabi and Craig Thomson. KC and the Sunshine Band. It is the longest wait for the club since the 1998 Scottish Cup win. 

READ MORE: Craig Gordon: Hearts legend on his journey to master the art of goalkeeping

"Let's see if we can put an end to that, that would be great, there are three games to go and we’re concentrating fully on this one," he said.  "You go into every season and it’s always a huge aim to get two Hampden, that semi-final stage and take it from there. We’re working hard to make that happen.

"Every player is looking towards getting to Hampden to win a cup, these are things that players are remembered for and I’d love to be able to be involved in a Hearts cup-winning team but there is still a long way to go."

If the season was to end with the goalkeeper's arms outstretched, clutching onto the famous trophy, it would be 18 years since his first with the club in 2006 when he was 23. It is hard to think of anyone having a bigger gap in the competition's history between the first and second win with the same club.

“Somebody is going to have to work that out now," Gordon, a fan of recording feats, said. “It has a chance. It would need to be another goalkeeper or someone who played for a very long time. Maybe someone who won it as a teenager. I don’t know the answer.

“I’m trying to break all the old guy records, why not, I’m here now? So I may as well try and keep the records going as long as possible.

“There’s always little motivations, little things like that. They seem to come thick and fast the older I get and the longer my career goes on. It would be nice to try and tick a few more off and leave that behind when I finally do hang the gloves up."

There has been "no definitive" from Steven Naismith, internally or externally, on there being a 'cup goalkeeper'. But going on past evidence, one can suspect that Gordon will be between the sticks come Monday evening when Hearts travel to Cappielow to face Greenock Morton with a place in the Scottish Cup semi-final at stake.

The 41-year-old isn't one for the proverbial chap on the manager's door. The club legend's focus is on impressing in training and in games as he not only aims to win back the No.1 spot from Zander Clark on a regular basis, but also ensure he is in Steve Clarke's Scotland squad come Euro 2024 and, perhaps, that Scottish Cup glory. 

He has spoken three times since he returned to first-team action in the win over The Spartans in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup. The message has been consistent: 'I am feeling good. I'm ready to play. I am capable of returning to the Scotland national team.'

READ MORE: Craig Gordon reveals he signed Hearts contract on the bus

“My job is to be ready to play whenever I am picked and that’s what I have done," Gordon said.

"I feel really good, I feel I’m training really well and in a good place. It’s up to the manager to pick the team. I’m there and ready for whatever game but I’m looking forward to hopefully playing in this one and showing what I can do again and seeing where that can take me."

With Scotland, it is a waiting game with Steve Clarke set to announce his squad next week for games with the Netherlands and Northern Ireland later this month. Gordon can find confidence in the national team boss having called up goalkeepers who have not had regular game time for their club.

"I don’t know what the manager is thinking," he said. “There’s always that little bit of hope because it has happened in the past. Hopefully I am the beneficiary of that this time. But yeah I’ll wait and see like everyone else. 

“But if I can play well in the games coming up I am given the opportunity to play in then hopefully I’ll give myself that opportunity."

He added: "What I can control is my fitness levels, my readiness to play and my performance if I do get the chance. That’s what I have been focused on the whole time. That’s what getting back from the injury was all about. I feel as if I have been at that level for a couple of months, at least. It’s almost in other people’s hands now. I have definitely done as much as I could.

“I can look at myself in the mirror and be very happy with how I have gone about getting back and the levels I feel I am at. Now it’s kind of wait and see and hope for the best.”