Pressley to exert derby-day influence from the shadows on new captain Gordon

ELVIS may have left the building (and hopefully that's the last of that cliché) but the influence of Steven Pressley will still be felt on Boxing Day when Hearts play Hibs in an Edinburgh derby that could help make or break either club's season.

Pressley's successor as club captain, Scotland goalkeeper Craig Gordon, admits that he could not have dreamed two months ago that he would be wearing the armband that Pressley seemed to have made his own.
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But Pressley's now famous "significant unrest" statement catapulted Hearts' most capped player through Vladimir Romanov's revolving door and brought Gordon the captaincy at the age of 23. One of the first people he turned to for advice was Pressley himself, who had previously advised Gordon to take the armband if offered it.

"I have spoken to him a few times," said Gordon, "and I don't really think there's anybody better that I could ask. He has spoken to me before every game recently and continues to talk to a lot of the guys, so I know he'll be wishing us all the best to try and get a result.

"I am going into my eighth year here and Elvis signed the year before I did, so I've learned a lot from him and hopefully that's something I can take on board, to try and use some of his philosophy and keep going what he started."

Citing as his inspirations such goalkeeper captains as Dino Zoff of Juventus and Italy, Bayern Munich's Oliver Kahn and Manchester United's Peter Schmeichel, Gordon said he would have no difficulty skippering the side from between the posts but admitted that the captaincy had come to him early.

"It's something I never thought I would see myself doing with Elvis and Paul Hartley here and some very good players and leaders out on the park," said Gordon. "It's not something I thought about but I've got the job now and I intend to do the best I can."

Asked if the dressing room atmosphere could be improved, Gordon said he would be organising squad get-togethers: "It's something we have to try but whether everybody is willing to do that or not is another matter. It is a continuing process and everybody has to work at it. It is early days and I have only been captain for a week or so. I will be having meetings with a few senior players to see where we can go."

A festive defeat of Hibs would surely make life a lot rosier down Tynecastle way. "I want to get off to a good start in derby games as captain and get a good record going," said Gordon, who feels the match could be a defining moment in the season.

"I have a good record against them at Tynecastle, where we have been fairly dominant and won by a few large score-lines, while the cup semi-final at Hampden was a big win so there are quite a few happy memories for me of derby days.

"The league is fairly tight in the middle section and a couple of good results can get us right back up there challenging for the second spot. But we know it's going to be difficult. Hibs have been playing well though they have had a couple of bad results recently, but we know what they're all about and hopefully we can go out in front of our own fans to get the three points which will give our supporters a good Christmas."

Hearts' non-Scottish players "possibly at the start didn't know how much [the derby] meant," said Gordon, "but over the weeks and months that they stay here they get to see what it means for the people. Everyone will be up for the game."

Taken from the Scotsman