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Gordon: Reasons to be cheerful

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Craig Gordon feels that Scotland have every reason to be optimistic heading into the 2010 World Cup qualifiers.

The keeper was part of George Burley's side which picked up an encouraging 1-1 draw with Croatia on Wednesday and sees no reason why the squad cannot build on an impressive result against a team which will be featuring at Euro 2008 come the summer.

The Sunderland star is also adamant that the Scots now have quality cover in every area of the field, something which they have been lacking for a number of years.

Inexperienced

"I think this was a good start," he said.

"The new manager has only had a few days to work with the lads, but he is already definitely trying to get his points across.

"We had a young side out there and it worked well for us as we came away with a very credible result against a good team.

"Our line-up was very young and inexperienced for an international team, so to put in a show like that must be very pleasing for all the coaching staff.

Dangerous

"Now we're starting to show that there's a little bit of strength in depth developing, and we'll definitely need that as it's going to be a long campaign over two years to qualify for the World Cup.

"It's going to be a difficult one as there are a lot of good quality sides in our group (Norway, Holland, Iceland and Macedonia), and we'll have to continue the progression that we've been making to look towards the finals at the end of it.

"We had success under the previous regimes so there isn't a lot to change; it's a continuation process and the new manager will add one or two things in as we go along.

"I was quite pleased with the way I played, I knew Croatia would be dangerous as they're a quality team and perhaps I would have to pull out a few saves, but the lads did well, put in a good performance to get a goal on the break, and to defend as well as we did was pleasing."

Qualities

Celtic's combative midfielder Paul Hartley was also full of praise for the new national regime, and admits that he is enjoying working with Burley again after his ill-fated spell in charge at Hearts.

"The manager is trying to stamp his own ideas on the side and get us to play in a certain way," he said.

"I already know his qualities and what he can bring to the team, and training under him this week has been excellent and we've enjoyed it.

"It was a tough game against quality opposition; Croatia have qualified for the European Championship and beat England twice on the way so we knew we would be in for a tough match, but considering it was the manager's first game, we're very pleased with the result."