Robbie Neilson insists Craig Gordon spending last season in the second tier of Scottish football shouldn’t affect his chance of being Scotland number one.
Gordon is currently with the national squad as they travel to Portugal from their Spanish training camp for pre-Euro 2020 warm up games against the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
Steve Clarke has a decision to make as to who gets the nod between the sticks for the tournament opener against the Czech Republic at Hampden on 14 June.
David Marshall wasn’t at his best for club or country in the final few weeks of the season, whereas Gordon hasn’t put a foot (or hand) wrong for Hearts and impressed when handed a national start against the Faroe Islands.
He may have been handed 12 as his squad number for the tournament, but as far as Neilson is concerned, he’s proved himself the number one goalkeeper in the country.
“We are just delighted Craig is going to be part of it with Scotland. Hopefully he gets game time,” he told the Edinburgh Evening News.
“Two teams are promoted from the Championship for next season, ourselves and Dundee, so it's a pretty decent league. Inverness beat Ross County 3-1 a couple of months ago which shows the standard is decent. You look at how Dundee beat Kilmarnock in both legs of the play-off final to get into the Premiership.
“As a goalkeeper, your job is to save shots and keep the ball out of the net. Craig has proven once again that he's one of the best – if not the best – in the country.
“It's absolutely brilliant that he is in the squad and I'm delighted for him. He's got in there on merit and he's going into the Euros as the in-form keeper. He's been outstanding week in and week out for us. He has been in training with our group since the season finished so he's fit as a fiddle at the moment.”
