Hearts captain Craig Gordon has urged his Tynecastle team-mates to cap a dream week for him on a personal and professional level by beating Rangers on Saturday. The Jambos No. 1 produced a trio of terrific performances for Scotland while welcoming baby boy Axel into the world during the international break, and is now back in Edinburgh focusing on the lunchtime visit of Gers for a match that could see Hearts leapfrog Gio van Bronckhorst 's side with a two-goal win.
With Hearts just three points behind their opponents, Gordon admitted he has been delighted at the manner in which Hearts have juggled Europa Conference League football - they welcome Serie A giants Fiorentina to Tynecastle on Thursday, with domestic duties successfully enough to have moved the side from the capital into third place in the Premiership - and now he would love Robbie Neilson's men to go one better.
"It's a big game and at home we always feel we've got a chance in these big games. It's one to look forward to and really go and have a go and try to win the match," Gordon told Sky Sports. "We have the added incentive that we could go into second place if we win, so there's a lot riding on it and it's one we will be giving everything to try and win.
"There have been challenges and times when we have been down to the bare bones of the squad. It has been difficult but we are where we wanted to be. At times it has not been pretty but we had to grind it out and that's a fantastic sign going forward that we can do that while we are playing all these extra matches, while we are in Europe, but we are still producing enough to keep ourselves in third place in the league.
"When the European games die down, the squad is only going to get stronger and hopefully we can go on a good run and try to pull away from the pack."
Commenting on Scotland picking up seven points from the match against the Republic of Ireland - where his son was born just hours before kick-off - and the double header with Ukraine, Gordon added: "It's been a good couple of weeks on both fronts. It's probably as good as it could have got in terms of football and the birth of a new son, it really doesn't come much better than that, so I'm really pleased with the way both things are going."
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