OVER a fortnight had passed before Craig Gordon watched back a replay of the late goal which Scotland conceded in their Russia 2018 qualifier against England.
The time which has elapsed did not make seeing the Harry Kane strike that denied his side what would have been a famous victory any easier for him to bear. The goalkeeper was criticised by many afterwards for failing to come off his line and pluck the Raheem Sterling cross out of the air before it reached Kane. He defended his actions at the time and is still, having pored over footage of the incident once again, positive he made the right decision.
Yet Gordon, who is in Austria with the rest of the Celtic squad on a pre-season training break, has admitted the national team, who had come from behind at the death to lead 2-1, collectively switched off after going in front with fatal consequences.
“I only saw it again for the first time a few days ago,” he said. “I probably still think the same way that I did at the time after seeing it again.
“I thought Kane was going to head it, but by the time he lets it drop to the point where he can volley it the distance is really close. It’s close to the goal, but for me to attack that ball in the air it would have been another seven or eight yards to get to it above his head height.
“There are split second decisions and I won’t get every one right in the season, but I got most of them right through 60 games.
“When you look back you may wish you’d done something else, but I’m comfortable in my own head why I made that decision. You can discuss if it was right or wrong, but the process of me thinking should I stay on line or go for it was the right thought process. I can take that.
“But I think we did lose concentration. We cleared the free-kick 30 yards from goal before it came in and I think we thought that was us. We were waiting on the final whistle. It didn’t come. The ball came back in the box and we lost the goal. There is a possibility we lost our concentration and we didn’t see out the game.
“I probably thought we had won it when I saved the free-kick, although that’s not the right thing to think at that stage. If we’d just managed to keep hold of the ball for 30 seconds we’d have done it.
“We gave it our best shot and it wasn’t good enough. We didn’t think we’d be in that situation after coming from behind. Whether it was mental or physical we didn’t manage to get through the situation.”
It was, despite holding the Group F leaders to a draw and picking up what could prove to be a valuable point, a bitterly disappointing way for Gordon and his Celtic team mates Stuart Armstrong, Scott Brown, Leigh Griffiths and Kieran Tierney to round off what had been an exceptional season.
The quintet, who had helped the Parkhead club go undefeated domestically and win only the fourth treble in their history, had been looking to cap their annus mirabilis on a huge high. Instead, they suffered one of the most excruciating denouements to any game they had been involved in before in their careers.
The 34-year-old, though, stressed the game had already been consigned to the past and would have no lingering effect on those involved going forward.
“It doesn’t knock on to Celtic stuff,” he said. “It’s a different team and a different style. When we come back here into Celtic then we know how to go about our business here. That’s football. You take it on the chin and get on with the next game and my next game is to build for the Champions league qualifier.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here