CRAIG FACES SHOWDOWN

CRAIG GORDON insists he has no fears over his Hearts future despite being called to a disciplinary meeting on Tuesday.

The new Jambos captain will follow axed skipper Steven Pressley and team-mate Paul Hartley when he attends a hearing with club officials.

Gordon (left), who will be accompanied by Players' Union chief Fraser Wishart, has been summoned after joining Hartley to support Pressley when he read out a statement against the running of the club in October.

The Scotland No.1 admitted he has no idea what will happen at the showdown, expected to be with Hearts Director of Infrastructure Pedro Lopez.

But he doesn't expect to follow Pressley out the door. Gordon, who was only named captain 24 hours before yesterday's 1-0 defeat by Aberdeen, said: "I've been called to a disciplinary meeting on Tuesday.

"I've no idea what to expect. Paul has been quiet about what happened at his. He hasn't been willing to discuss what went on with anyone.

"I'll just need to see what happens on the day. But I'm not worried about it, it's something they see as the right way to go and I will listen to what they have to say. I will have my say and see what happens.

"I'm not fearful of losing my place. We don't know what's going to happen at the club because nobody ever does. But I don't think I'll be losing my place.

"I'm going to concentrate on myself and not what has happened to others. Fraser

Wishart will accompany me when I go to the meeting on Tuesday."

Gordon later revealed he'd spoken to axed skipper Pressley before agreeing to accept the captain's armband.

And he claims Elvis' reaction convinced him to become the new skipper.

The keeper is confident he can now reunite a dressing room that has been shattered during a desperate season.

Gordon said: "I spoke to Steven before I got offered the captaincy. Paul Hartley, Steven and myself had talked about whether or not we should take the captaincy if it was offered to one of us.

"Steven convinced both of us that whoever it was offered to should take it.

"He felt the captain of the team should remain a Scottish player and wanted one of us to take the job.

"It's a massive task to get everyone together here but I'll give it my best shot. Hopefully I can resurrect our season and get us pushing up the league."

Fellow rebel Hartley was left out of the starting line-up against the Dons and couldn't stop the side slumping to defeat after coming on as a sub.

But hapless head coach Valdas Ivanauskas stood by his selection and insisted he alone had made the decision to bench Hartley.

The Scotland star was available for selection after Thursday's disciplinary hearing - but was left on the bench despite the absence of Julian Brellier in midfield.

When he appeared after 64 minutes Hartley almost turned the game in Hearts' favour. But the blundering Jambos boss insisted afterwards he had picked the right team as he sat stoney-faced dishing out one-word answers.

Asked why Hartley had been left out, the Lithuanian said bluntly: "Tactic."

Asked what those tactics were, he shrugged: "Too long to explain for you."

Given that he had spent Friday's press conference telling the media what a wonderful player Hartley was, surely it was worth explaining.

Yet his answer seemed to be that he didn't think the Scotland star was good enough to cope with a buoyant Dons side. Ivanauskas said: "You saw today Paul was a wonderful player. Why did he not play at first? You have to see the other team as well and Aberdeen is now very confident."

Asked to clarify what he meant, Valdas said: "You know this is not one player - we win and lose together."

"I made the decision to keep Paul on the bench. It had nothing to do with the meeting he had with the club.

"But I won't explain about every player and how they played."

The Jambos now trail second-placed Dons by seven points after their season took another turn for the worse.

And furious keeper Gordon slammed the sloppy marking that led to Steve Lovell's late winner.

He said: "We switched off at a throw-in which has eventually cost us an important goal.

"It was a simple mistake and a stupid one. Aberdeen took the throw reasonably quickly but it shouldn't have caught us out.

"We weren't in position and they eventually got a shot in which I managed to get a hand to.

"But the bottom line is they got a goal out of pretty much nothing and that's disappointing from a defensive point of view.

"I wasn't disappointed with myself at the goal. Scott Severin hit the shot from about 18 yards, it was swerving away from me and I only ended up getting one hand to it in the end.

"I tried to knock it out. My first opinion was that Lovell was standing in an offside position but the linesman said he thought our left-back was playing him on.

"You have to look for your defenders to give you a hand in those situations and react first.

"So their winner was disappointing on two fronts.

"We don't like losing games at Tynecastle but we've paid the penalty for not taking our chances because we had opportunities."

Taken from the Sunday Mail