CRAIG GORDON has gone a remarkable 12 hours and 46 minutes since he last conceded a goal to Scottish opposition.
St Johnstone’s Steven MacLean was the last domestic player to beat the Celtic keeper – and that was in the 89th minute of the Hoops’ 4-2 victory in Perth back on August 20.
It was only the second Premiership outing of the campaign for new boss Brendan Rodgers and the champions.
Since MacLean bundled the ball over the line, Gordon has gone 766 minutes without admitting defeat.
The 33-year-old Scotland international saved a penalty-kick in his next game – the Champions League qualifier against Hapoel Be’er Sheva in Israel – as the Hoops lost 2-0 to scrape through to the group stages 5-4 on aggregate.
Ironically, Gordon was then dropped by Rodgers who favoured his ex-Swansea keeper Dorus de Vries to face today’s Betfred League Cup Final opponents Aberdeen for the league encounter in Glasgow on August 27.
The Dutchman, 35, bought for £400,000 from Nottingham Forest in that month’s transfer window, conceded as Celtic won 4-1.
In fact, the ex-Dunfermline goalie didn’t keep a clean sheet and lost a total of 12 goals – including seven to Barcelona in the Nou Camp – in his four-and-a-half games for his new club.
His last appearance was in the first-half against Kilmarnock on September 24 when a 40-yard effort eluded him to give the visitors a shock lead.
De Vries was injured attempting to keep out the speculative effort and Gordon took over at the interval and has remained in the No.1 position ever since.
He had shut out Alloa in the 2-0 Betfred League Cup quarter-final the midweek before the Killie match.
Gordon’s run since MacLean’s effort at McDiarmid Park reads:
Sept 21: Celtic 2 Alloa 0
Sept 24: Celtic 6 Kilmarnock 1 (second-half)
Oct 1: Dundee 0 Celtic 1
Oct 15: Celtic 2 Motherwell 0
Oct 23: Celtic 1 Rangers 0
Oct 26: Ross County 0 Celtic 4
Oct 29: Aberdeen 0 Celtic 1
Nov 5: Celtic 3 Caley Thistle 0
Nov 18: Kilmarnock 0 Celtic 1
Gordon took over the gloves at Parkhead following Fraser Forster’s £10million move to Southampton in August 2014.
The England international had kept clean sheets for 1,256 minutes setting a new league record which beat the previous best held by Aberdeen’s Bobby Clark at 1,155 minutes.
Forster’s 13-game run came to an end on February 25, 2014 when Jonny Hayes hammered in a sizzling 30-yard effort in a 2-1 win for Aberdeen at Pittodrie.
Now the Dons will be asked this afternoon to perform a feat no other Scottish team has managed in over THREE months and that is to persuade the Bhoys shotstopper to retrieve the ball from his net.
Irishman Hayes, of course, is likely to face Gordon at Hampden today!
