‘I’M BETTER NOW THAN WHEN I COST £9m,’ GORDON

CRAIG GORDON has revealed he thought his Celtic career was over when he was axed by Brendan Rodgers.

The 33-year-old international keeper was dropped earlier in the season to make way for Dorus de Vries, signed late in August by his ex-Swansea City manager.

Gordon was clearly worried that it was the end of his dream comeback at the Hoops following just over two seasons after replacing Southampton-bound Fraser Forster.

He admitted: “That was the obvious first reaction and then after about two days I thought: ‘Let’s do something about it.’

“Was I like a bear with a sore head? Probably, yeah, but very soon I came round.

“You’ve got two choices, what are you going to do about it?

“I’ve been enjoying it here. It’s been great. The manager has come in and the place has got a big lift. We’ve played some great football, scoring a lot of goals. It’s been good to be part of and I didn’t want to lose that. I didn’t want to throw it away.”

He’s not lost a goal in seven-and-a-half domestic matches since he replaced De Vries at half-time in the 6-1 win over Kilmarnock in September.

Gordon has taken on board the sweeper keeper role Rodgers encourages and he insisted he’s now better than he was when he shattered the British goalkeeping transfer record when he left Hearts for Sunderland for £9million in 2009.

He said: “I’ve probably got more now than I had then. The game has changed and the demands are even higher now.

“You could get away with just being a shotstopper and kicking the ball away. For most teams now, that’s not enough.

“It is quite complicated now, but that’s better. The days have gone, well certainly here, of just standing around and kicking the ball up the park.”

Gordon is now looking forward to picking up his first medal of the campaign when the Hoops take on Aberdeen in the Betfred League Cup Final on Sunday.

He added: “We’ve had such a good start to the season, everything has been so positive. But you want to win medals and this is our first chance to do that this season.”