Cats reaping rewards from trusting in Gordon

Feb 19 2008 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

SUNDERLAND are starting to be rewarded for the patience they have shown in Craig Gordon, according to the club’s greatest goalkeeper.

The British record signing made a solid start to his Black Cats career but a mid-season blip, culminating in the humiliating 7-1 thrashing at Goodison Park, resulted in the Scotland international being dropped for three matches in December. However, Jim Montgomery believes his hometown club is now seeing the form the 24-year-old showed at previous club Heart of Midlothian.

Having moved from Edinburgh for £9m in August, this is Gordon’s debut Premier League season. When Gordon arrived Montgomery, whose 623-appearance tally is a Sunderland record, played down early expectations by pointing to the slow impact others made when tasting English football for the first time, and now the Scot is justifying the stance by finding his feet at the Stadium of Light.

“I was saying to people before Christmas that Roy Keane must have seen something in him,” said Montgomery, whose man-of-the-match display helped earn the Wearsiders’ last major trophy, the 1973 FA Cup. “He wouldn’t have had him watched so many times and then agreed to pay £9m if he was a numpty, would he? I didn’t write him off because of that. He must have had something if the manager wanted him so badly.

“You have to remember he was just 24 years-old, he was moving away from Scotland for the first time and a league where, with Hearts, he was only playing two or three teams which were big, high-profile matches. He got one of those every week at Sunderland.

“He’s not the first player to struggle to settle initially. Players like Dennis Bergkamp didn’t settle straight away when he came to Arsenal from Inter Milan and look what he went on to achieve for the club.”

As the Black Cats’ form has improved since the turn of the year, so Gordon’s has been better received by supporters. His role in Sunderland’s crucial 2-0 home win over Wigan Athletic, where the visitors enjoyed the bulk of the chances, highlighted the improvement in the Scot’s confidence and performances. Former Birmingham City and Nottingham Forest player Montgomery is delighted his contribution is now being recognised.

“I’m really pleased for Craig that he is starting to be appreciated,” said the club’s former goalkeeping coach. “He looks a top keeper to me and we’re starting to see that now. I’ve always said, it’s better for a goalkeeper to make his name at a club which is struggling, but at the same time nobody really remembers a save you make when you’re already 4-0 down, just as they don’t really remember one when you’re 4-0 up either.

“Craig is making some very important saves which are earning the team points, but that is because the rest of the team is doing well around him as well.”

Meanwhile, Carlos Edwards’ agent says the winger is determined not to waste his opportunity to play in the Premier League. The 29-year-old former Wrexham and Luton Town player’s first taste of the English top-flight has so far been restricted to just five appearances after a hamstring injury, then a broken leg. But Mike Berry says Edwards, whose career began in his native Trinidad and Tobago with Defence Force, has been well served by his tough attitude.

“Carlos is a military man,” he said. “He signed up for the army back home and that made him a strong character. He’s worked damn hard in the last 10 years to achieve his ambition of playing in the Premier League and having got there it’s been a season of disappointment. A lesser person might not have handled it as well, and I’m sure once he gets back into full training, which is hopefully imminent, we’ll see the best of Carlos in the best league.”