Craig Gordon has been in fine form for Celtic recently.
If you were to list all of the reasons why Brendan Rodgers deserves huge credit as Celtic manager then that list would go on longer than one of Arsene Wenger’s coats.
The Northern Irishman has been phenomenal since taking the Celtic job in 2016, but one success has gone under the radar in recent weeks: Craig Gordon.
The 34-year-old goalkeeper was superb as the Hoops cruised to a domestic treble without losing a match last season but he showed worrying signs of decline during the summer for club and country.
Gordon was arguably culpable for both of England’s goals in that famous 2-2 draw at Hampden Park in June, and also made a couple of errors and questionable decisions during Celtic’s pre-season and earlier in the competitive season.
He conceded soft goals in wins over Hamilton Academical and Hearts and Celtic fans on Twitter asked why Rodgers didn’t sign a goalkeeper.
Gordon showed them why.
The former Sunderland keeper earned rave reviews for what Scott Brown called a “frightening” point-blank save in the 2-2 draw with Hibernian last week, but he also pulled off an outstanding stop in the 4-0 win over Ross County three weeks back.
A brilliant save is a brilliant save whether it’s against Louis Moult or Lionel Messi and Gordon is justifying Rodgers’s decision to stick by him when it would’ve been very easy to go out and sign a goalkeeper in the summer.
He probably had reason to, but he had even more reason to keep faith and that’s being vindicated right now.
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