Craig Gordon is determined to make this his best season in football by captaining Hearts to Scottish Cup glory on the back of an impressive run of personal form.
The 39-year-old Scotland stopper has been nominated for the PFA Scotland Premiership Player of the Year after helping his boyhood club romp to a convincing third-place finish with a string of stunning saves.
Hearts face Rangers in the Scottish Cup final at Hampden next month and, although he has won trophies previously with the Jambos and Celtic, Gordon reckons this could end up being his finest campaign yet.
“It’s been a very good season for me so far,” he said. “If we can keep the momentum going and go on and lift a trophy, I don’t think there will have been many better seasons than that in terms of personally the way I’ve been playing and also the achievement for the team. The season has gone very well and I’d love it to be even better.”
Gordon won the Scottish Cup with Hearts in his first spell in 2006 and is eager to do it again.
“I’ve done it once before so to do it twice – not many people have done it twice (with Hearts) – would be very special,” he said.
“And as captain. We’ve got a few games to go before that, but it’s definitely something we’re all looking forward to. We’ll try and get there in the best possible shape and give it our best shot.”
Gordon believes his PFA nomination – alongside Celtic pair Callum McGregor and Tom Rogic – is a reflection of how well Hearts have done this season.
“I’ve never won this award so it’s great to be nominated,” he said. “We’ll see what happens on Sunday. There’s a great standard of players here (among the nominees). It’s great to be talked about with these guys.
“The team’s been doing well and personally I’ve been on a good run of form, making a good amount of saves. The fact that the team has gone on to win games because of that, I think that then highlights the job I’ve been doing.
“It’s a lot of credit to the guys in front of me for going and winning the games and making those saves worth something. It’s a real team effort and it shows our club as a whole have done very well this season.”
As well as the possibility of a player of the year award and a Scottish Cup, Gordon is also chasing World Cup qualification with Scotland, with the play-off semi-final at home to Ukraine and then a possible final away to Wales in June.
“It’s still a difficult couple of games,” he cautioned. “We can only think about one game at a time and that is to try and win here against Ukraine, which will be a difficult task in itself. We have to be fully focused on that one.
“It’s not long after the end of the season so from my point of view, it’s quite good for myself because I won’t have that long period between games. I’ve just got to keep training and keep playing, and I’ve got an awful lot still to look forward to this season.”
