Craig Gordon is not worried as Harry Kane targets a hat-trick against Scotland

10 June 2017 06:54

Scotland goalkeeper Craig Gordon is nonplussed by England hit-man Harry Kane's hat-trick hopes.

The Spurs striker, top scorer in the Premier League last season with 29 goals, is not so prolific for the Three Lions with only five goals in 17 appearances and is keen for that statistic to improve.

Ahead of the World Cup Group F qualifier at Hampden Park, the 23-year-old said: "If I score maybe a hat-trick at the weekend and a couple in the next game, the ratio might not look so bad. Five in 17 isn't a terrible record but it is something I want to improve. Hopefully that can start at the weekend."

Asked if those comments annoyed Gordon, the 34-year-old Celtic keeper said: "Not in the slightest. I hope our strikers want to score a hat-trick as well.

"As a striker, he wants to score goals. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that whatsoever.

"He has had a fantastic season, finishing up top goalscorer in England, so he is another one that we have to be wary of, but they have more than one.

"The manager was saying earlier that we can't focus too much on one player because they do have threats from all over the park.

"It's up to us to make sure we are trying to nullify those while posing a threat."

However, Gordon, coming off a treble-winning season with Celtic who could have as many as six players in the side, is aware that Scotland must keep clam heads in what is sure to be a cauldron, with the home team needing a positive result to keep qualification hopes alive.

After five fixtures, Gordon Strachan's side are in fourth place, one point behind Slovenia, two behind Slovakia and six behind leaders England, who have not lost a qualifier since 2009 and who beat Scotland 3-0 at Wembley in October.

" That's a must, we have got to keep 11 players on the pitch," said the former Hearts and Sunderland keeper.

"We know that going in but we have players with enough experience to know what games like this entail.

"The Celtic boys have played in the Champions League this year and we know what the different atmospheres can be like, and we handled that fairly well.

"We know we are going to have to be fired up, we are going to have to make tackles, but at the same time we want to play football.

"We are not here just to try and stop England playing, we are going to try and play ourselves."

Source: PA