Craig Gordon was back between the sticks for Heart of Midlothian on Saturday against Falkirk - but it was another cup match against the Bairns to forget.

The goalkeeper produced some fine saves but was ultimately on the losing side as the team went down 2-0 and exited the Premier Sports Cup.

Gordon spoke about the disappointment, Hearts League Cup record and what the team need to do to get back to winning ways. Read everything he said...

Thoughts on that?

It’s 62 years since we won this competition and it’s not going to be this year. It’s really disappointing. We started the game really well, had the chances, we didn’t take them and Falkirk then grew into the game.

There is no point sugarcoating it, that's a massive disappointment for the club because you want to be in the latter stages and win it?

Absolutely. It’s not a good enough record, we haven't won it for so long. Our aspirations are to be getting to Hampden, to be in with a chance of winning every competition we are in, so this is a sore one.

You come up with massive saves and you must hope it will contribute to a win?

You hope so but it’s a collective responsibility to win games. We’ve not managed to do that at the start of this season and we have to find a way to start winning matches. Chances aren’t going in at one end and we’ve lost a couple of goals at the other, so we need to get back to winning again. Once we do that and get some confidence from that I can see us going on to have a successful season. But we need to get started.

You came out a couple of times to speak to the players, did you sense that the game or the occasion was getting away from them?

We have to be up for the fight, especially away from home. You have to be physically able to handle the occasion. In that first half, I thought we were pretty good, we were the better team. We should have gone in ahead at half-time, but we didn’t and there probably wasn't much in the second half either way. In the end, we’re the ones looking at a defeat and that's disappointing.

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How do the boys get themselves up for the next challenges?

We’ve got a European game coming up and no one should need lifted for that. It’s a huge opportunity for us against a very good team and we’ll need to stick together. We need to come out fighting and do it in the right way. We have to fight for one and another to get what we want out of this coming week.

You looked angry at the manner of the second goal?

We’d just made a sub and we didn’t reorganise quick enough. There were ten minutes to go, we were trying to play quickly and we just didn’t get the set-up right. We put ourselves under pressure, which we really didn’t need to do. That was disappointing, because at 2-0 down it’s a long way back.

Do you think the team is going to take time to gel and realise what is at stake with Europe and what you can achieve domestically?

We've got to start winning games. There’s no better time than away from home in a European game. We need to go there, stay in the tie and bring it back to Tynecastle with something to play for. We will have full focus on that now. This defeat’s going to take a bit of getting over. We have to bounce back, stick together and fight for one another.

What does it take in these European games to be a success?

It takes heart and desire to defend your goal and stay in the match when you’re a long way from home and don’t have many of your own fans there. You have to fight for one another. That’s the most important thing before any game plans or tactics, it’s about us being 100 per cent there for each other. Do that and we’ll give ourselves a chance.

Can the European game be the shot in the arm the team needs?

Winning games breeds confidence and that’s what we need at the moment. If we can get a good result over there and come back and pick up a win at Motherwell on Sunday, then things will start to look a lot better. But it’s hard to look at that right now when we’ve just gone out of the League Cup.