Gary Mackay: Celtic's loss is Hearts' gain and Craig Gordon richly deserves Scotland call-up

Hearts goalkeeper Craig Gordon celebrates with Michael Smith and Craig Halkett after the Scottish Cup semi-final win over Hibs at Hampden. (Photo by Ross Parker / SNS Group)

Celtic supporters must be looking at the two goalkeepers they have and wondering whether the two of them together could have made the save that Craig made from Kevin Nisbet's header in the first half. I'm not convinced.

Celtic's loss is certainly Hearts' gain and looking at Craig's professional career and how he's bounced back from a really serious injury, to get named in the Scotland squad is a real credit to his resolve and resilience and it's thoroughly deserved.

It was a position Hearts struggled with and not just last season. We've not had a settled goalkeeper since Jon McLaughlin left.

It was always a position prior to Craig's first time around that was a really strong position for Hearts.

We've not really had that in recent years and hopefully Craig can be the one that can be there for not just this season, but another two or three seasons to come.

He's 37, but when you get to the age Craig is at, he knows his own body and from the serious injury he had he'll know how he works.

Ultimately, if whatever he is doing in training and between games is allowing him to perform like he did on Saturday let's have more of the same.

As for Hearts, hopefully the desire and attitude shown on Saturday will carry us into what is a very difficult league.

It will be tough to forget Saturday but that has to the be case because you have Dunfermline there who have started really well and we have to make sure that come Inverness on Saturday we're up for it and ready for that again against a John Robertson-coached Inverness side.

The derby win was great, but it’s now a case of making sure that as well as getting to a Scottish Cup final we do our utmost to make sure we return back to the Premiership, and have the opportunity to play Hibs four times next season.

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