Craig Gordon

CRAIG Gordon is relishing a return to the Stadium of Light this weekend in the Dafabet Cup clash – despite it being the scene of the most frustrating spell of his football career.

The Scotland internationalist joined Sunderland from Hearts in 2007 for a then record transfer fee between British clubs for a goalkeeper.

However, his time on Wearside was blighted by injuries and the 34-year-old never felt he was able to perform at the peak of his powers over a concerted period.

“We managed to stay in the league for the five years I was there,” said Gordon, speaking to this week's Celtic View.

“I had a few injury problems. Although I played quite well in between the injuries, I never really got a long enough stretch injury-free to really show what I could do. It was probably the most frustrating part of my career as I felt it was a good move at the time to go into the Premier League down south and show what I could do.

“These things can happen to anyone and I had one injury after another and I didn’t manage to play 100 games over five years, and I have played over 160 game in three years here. At that stage in my career, that’s what happened. I have managed to get myself in a better place now and I have played a lot of games in the last few years.

“There are only a few who still work at the club and maybe one or two players, but not many I keep in touch with,” he continued. “It will be nice to go back down there. It will be the first time I will have been back to the stadium since I left so it will be nice to see a few people again.”

 

When we make the CL groups this is the guy we can thank.

 

CG: “I’m looking forward to it. I’ve not been back and it’ll be nice to catch up with some of the people that I know from my time there."

CG: "We worked really hard to stay up in my first year under Roy Keane and it was a real achievement for that group of players to stay up."

CG: "It set the foundation for the club to stay in the league for 10 years, so it was an important season."

CG on best memory from @SunderlandAFC: "My save against Bolton will probably be the best save of my career. I’ll do well to better that!"

CG: "In terms of the game, I think there will be some players looking to get minutes but it depends how the manager wants to go about it."

CG: "I'm sure it’ll be a mixture of players looking to get fitness up and those wanting to stake a claim. It’ll be a good team regardless."

On #UCL qualifier v Rosenborg: “We’re still very much in it. It wasn’t a terrible result to get at home and the clean sheet was vital."

CG: "If we can get the away goal then we're in the driving seat. We’re satisfied with it.

CG: "We wanted more but we’ll go over there and try to do a good job. Hopefully we can get the right result."


PRIOR to the Dafabet Cup game against Sunderland on Saturday, a £10,000 cheque from Celtic FC Foundation will be handed over to the Bradley Lowery Foundation, a charity which is being set up to remember Bradley, who recently passed away after losing his battle against cancer at just six years of age.

The Sunderland support rallied around the youngster who was their club mascot and former Black Cats keeper, current Celtic No.1, Craig Gordon will make his return to the Stadium of Light for the game which also celebrates the 20th anniversary of the stadium.

The keeper said: “I remember how hard we worked the first year to stay up under Roy Keane. It was a real battle and a real achievement for that group of players to stay up and set the foundation for the club to go on and stay in that league for 10 years.

“It was an important season to get under our belt and stay up and there was a real togetherness in the squad to allow that to happen.”

The Hoops will then travel to Norway for the second instalment of the UEFA Champions League qualifier with Rosenborg which stands at 0-0 following the first leg at Celtic Park this week.

The Celtic No.1 said: “We are still very much in it. It’s not a terrible result to get at home as the clean sheet was really important. That means if we get the away goal over there then we are in the driving seat.

“We are satisfied with it. We wanted more but we can go over there and do the job to get the right result.”

Rosenborg, of course, are midway through their season but the Celtic keeper feels that the gap in fitness levels won’t be a major problem.

He added: “We are starting to get really into the swing of things now in making sure that we are ready for every game. We are well through pre-season now and we are looking forward to next week. I don’t think that will be a problem in terms of our fitness.

“We will go out there with a good game-plan and stick to our tactical discipline to try to make sure we get through the tie.

“We do have players from midfield that can score goals so even if we play without a striker again, it doesn’t mean to say that we aren’t going to score as we still have enough guys in the team than can score and create chances.”

 

His cup final performance was brilliant. That save in injury time just after we scored went in slow motion for me.

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The goal he conceded against Hearts is exactly why he can't be trusted as our No.1 in Europe. School boy Goalkeeping.

I fear he will cost us if he continues in goal for us in Europe as he'll be tested way more than he is domestically.

I would honestly rather see De Vries in goals as he has looked very good pre season and deserves a second chance. Gordon is still too clumsey and concedes silly goals which we could do without in this tie v Astana.

 

De Vreis conceded a multitude of those types of goals in his fleeting appearances.

Gordon is our #1. End of.

Interesting that you never posted once during the match, not once after it (despite many brilliant performances) and have now come on to pick at the only negative from an otherwise perfect flag day.

Must be * being that type of Celtic fan.

 

As said easily better than De Vries, bad goal he lost but then do we say Jozo should be dropped for getting caught out?

I will say I thought his kicking in Norway was fkn horrendous, the paper said it was good, lol.

I like the big man, doing a great job.

 

Christ.

The goal he conceded wasn't great, he did go down too early trying to anticipate Goncalves hitting it across him. But Jozo was equally poor, he dived in way too early as well, allowing Isma to get his shot away.
Just as Gordon could have stood up, Jozo could have just ushered his man towards the byline and saw off any real threat.

De Vries is a backup for emergencies, Gordon has proven he is number one.

 

Agree with the "should Jozo be dropped" responses to the trolling here. A sloppy consolation goal in a nothing game that was over as a contest long ago.
Big man has been superb for us.
No cause for concern for me.

 

And you're willing to risk that "2nd chance" in our most important match of the season?

 

There's always an element of could the keeper have done better when a goal is conceded, and that occurs at any level of football.

The goal conceded yesterday was well hit and from close range. It's to CG's credit and consistently that when it hit the net, most people's immediate reaction was surprise.

Over the past 12 months CG has developed numerous areas of his game, which for a professional in his mid 30's demonstrates a brilliant attitude.

DDV as previously mentioned has struggled when given the opportunity, and realistically who else can the club afford who has a comparable skill set to our current first choice keeper?

Unexpected things happen in football, (obstacles like losing 0-1 LR Imps) but if the structure and support is right good times always lie ahead.

 

Jozo was completely minced by that striker for the goal - and Gordon also messed up...no need to drop either of them. Both were tired from recent up tempo games, 4-0 up, and thems' the breaks at this time of season.

 

Here we go. Our first goal conceded of the season, 5 games in, and it's all Gordons fault. What about Jozo who attempted a slide tackle and completely missed? We were 4-0 up, I think it's obvious it was down to being complacent. Gordon's best attribute is his shot stopping.

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Big Dorus played well at Sunderland

 

My opinion of him has totally changed again. Been top class toward the end of last season up to now.

 

There is no doubt gordon is a quality keeper, but i do think we could/should have a better one.

He does seem to get caught out at his near post alot of tines seems to be a weakness of his. Dont get me wrong even big forster had his weak points but id just like to see us improving every department as much as possible.

 

Jozo was more to blame for the goal then Craigy imo he went down far too easily and exposed Gordon

 

Very shaky. I'm worried he'll cost us in the big games.

 

You said that Hayes should never be played in Europe again. What is different here? Why are you willing to give DDV a second chance after being abysmal in Europe but not Hayes?

I know the answer. You're just a trolling wee *.