{"id":233122,"date":"2026-01-11T20:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T20:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/233122\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T20:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T20:15:08","slug":"substitute-gordon-43-produces-save-of-season-to-keep-hearts-beating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/233122\/","title":{"rendered":"Substitute Gordon, 43, produces save of season to keep Hearts beating"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Pundits and punters alike cut a similar shape to Braga on the bench. Disbelief abound. Just how had Gordon done that? Even the man himself wasn&#8217;t sure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Sometimes you surprise yourself as a goalkeeper,&#8221; Gordon told BBC Scotland. &#8220;That was definitely one that I thought was a goal, but decided to go after it anyway and somehow managed to claw it out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;That really does feel as if it was one of my best.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Not half. There was talk of Gordon Banks v Brazil, David Seaman v Sheffield United and&#8230; well, Craig Gordon v Bolton Wanderers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Former team-mate Steven Pressley was in the opposite dugout, and couldn&#8217;t help but enthuse about the Hearts goalkeeper.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I spoke to Craig at length before the game,&#8221; the Dundee head coach said. &#8220;He&#8217;s been starved of opportunity and you wonder if it&#8217;s going to affect his performance&#8230; wow, it seems to have improved it. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He made a couple of big saves today. That&#8217;s the reason they&#8217;re top of the league, they have a second-choice goalkeeper who&#8217;s world class.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Former Hearts midfielder Ryan Stevenson was on punditry duty, and could barely believe his eyes: &#8220;That&#8217;s save of the season. Every player is running to Craig Gordon. That is one of the best saves I have ever seen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;That dressing room will be electric. Against any other goalkeeper in the league, that is a goal and Dundee get a draw.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In the frenzy of the post-save aftermath, it became clear that it was more than just a superb piece of goalkeeping or moment of individual brilliance. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It showed why Hearts&#8217; unbelievable title charge continues to hold water.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Craig has always been capable of that big save, that big moment,&#8221; head coach Derek McInnes said. &#8220;When he was called upon, he stood up. &#8220;I thought it was past him. Magnificent moment for him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;For Craig, to be 43 years of age, throwing himself about a training ground&#8230; obviously, there&#8217;s a lot of motivation this season in terms of the World Cup, and trying to be part of something special here.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It&#8217;s first class, and good on him. I&#8217;m pleased for him. It&#8217;s a wee reminder everyone that he&#8217;s still got a role to play and when we needed him, he was there.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Any team that has a successful campaign, they&#8217;re the bedrock, digging out results like that. It felt significant.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pundits and punters alike cut a similar shape to Braga on the bench. Disbelief abound. Just how had&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-233122","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}