Craig Gordon has his sights set on still being Scotland No1 come 2024 as the national team get set to mix it with Europe's top dogs.
Steve Clarke's Dark Blues secured promotion to League A in the Nations League after topping the section following a final group game draw with Ukraine. That followed up Hampden wins over the same opposition and the Republic of Ireland. Top spot also secured a second seeding for the Euro 2024 qualifying draw and a guaranteed play-off spot.
Hearts veteran Gordon showed his class throughout the triple-header and is determined to remain at the top for years to come and reap the reward from topping League B.
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He said: “That’s what I’ve said to the boys, that I’ll be trying my best.
“Who knows? It’s a while away yet. Let’s see what happens but I’ll give it a go.
“To be part of this group is fantastic. They are a great bunch of boys to come away with.
“You can see how much they are fighting for each other, every single game.
“Everybody enjoys coming away with Scotland, it’s a great atmosphere. We’ve really created that now, and we want to keep it going for as long as possible.
“We want to try and get to major tournaments.
“We’ve had a taste of one and want to give ourselves the best chance to do it again.”
In true Scottish fashion, the national team had to do things the hard way with a sickness bug making its way through the camp on top of a mounting injury list.
One beneficiary was Hibs stopper Ryan Porteous, who came in for his debut for Scotland.
His performance was nothing short of outstanding - with his manager, punters and fans heaping praise on the 23-year-old.
Club rival Gordon has joined that growing list hailing his performance as 'brilliant' and revealing that David Marshall had nothing but positive things to say about the defender.
He continued: “Ryan Porteous was brilliant — what a debut.
“He was really composed on the ball, he threw his body in when he had to, he made some good blocks, even when they were ultimately offside at times.
“Ryan still got back to help me out, and I thought he was excellent. We’ve all known he’s a good player and he’s been coming through with the squad for a while.
“I spoke to David Marshall about him a few months ago, and he was loving playing behind him.
“Marsh said he was an excellent player and he expected big things of him.
“I think Ryan showed why against Ukraine. Not only was he a great defender, but he was good on the ball for us.
“He brought the ball out and what a real composed, confident first game for him.
“Ryan’s been relatively quiet in the camp. But he’s not been around this environment for very long. Certainly you can tell he’s got a confidence and a belief about him to go with the ability. And he certainly backed that up in Poland.”
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