CRAIG GORDON hailed the emergence of Steven Fletcher as a fully-fledged Scotland player – and insisted that Christophe Berra won't be far behind him.
The Hibs striker won his first international cap after playing the first half of the 1-1 draw against Croatia at Hampden last night.
However, fellow Capital star Christophe Berra will have to wait a little longer for his first-team bow after sit
ting out the 90 minutes on the substitutes' bench, alongside the only other remaining outfield player Garry O'Connor.
Despite Berra's absence from the field though, Gordon believes that both players have the potential to become real stars in the Scotland fold over the course of the next few years.
The former Hearts goalkeeper, of course, knows Berra well from his time at Tynecastle and the 23-year-old even stepped in to take over the captaincy when Gordon quit at the beginning of the season to join Premiership side Sunderland.
And the Black Cats stopper insisted that just being part of the Scotland set-up will be valuable experience for both players.
He said: "It was a good experience for them to get into the squad, Christophe obviously didn't get to play last night but even just being involved gives you a chance to see what it is all about.
"I am sure that he will learn from it and from training with a lot of quality players. To come away with the senior Scotland squad and see what other people do, how other clubs, players and managers work and train, can be invaluable."
Fletcher lasted just 45 minutes at Hampden before being forced off as the result of a knock that he took against Slaven Bilic's side.
The striker, who celebrated his 21st birthday yesterday, was played in an unfamiliar role, deeper than he is used to with Hibs and in the channel behind Kenny Miller.
However, he did enough in the first half to suggest that he will be given further chances to shine for his country over the coming seasons. Gordon added: "Steven took a wee knock and that was why he had to come off at half time but he did well in the 45 minutes that he did play.
"He was in a bit of a different position than he has been used to and the conditions probably didn't help him because it was quite heavy underfoot. He was also tracking back quite a lot, which is something that he has maybe not been used to with his club. But, to be fair to him, he did it well and he was willing to cover the park trying to help his defence out.
"He's got a lot of potential, he has already scored a few goals for Hibs this season and I think he has got a great future ahead of him at both domestic and international level."
Last night's match was George Burley's first as Scotland manager and Gordon is hoping that the new era at Hampden will signal a return to a major finals for the country. The Scots have not qualified for either a World Cup or European Championship for over a decade, although they came agonisingly close to booking their place at Euro 2008 under Alex McLeish. And Gordon revealed that the bitter experience of missing out so narrowly has left the Scots more determined than ever to make sure that they do the job properly under Burley.
The Croats gave the Scots' central defensive pairing of Stephen McManus – who was named captain for the day in the absence of Barry Ferguson – and Gary Caldwell all sorts of problems and opened the scoring with less than ten minutes gone.
However, the home side levelled after half an hour when Kenny Miller's angled effort deflected into the net off Josip Simunic.
Gordon admitted that the Croats had been tough opening opponents for his new boss. He continued: "They were a difficult team for us to start with, they are a good side, but we have come through it okay.
"We wanted to make sure that it was more than a friendly, it was the first game for the new manager and I think all of the players wanted to lay down a marker for inclusion in the rest of the games in the qualifiers.
"We had something to play for out there – okay they are looking ahead to Euro 2008, but we are already starting to build for the World Cup campaign. Everyone wanted to show that whoever comes to Hampden will get a hard game. We came close the last time and we have to take that experience and use it to our advantage for the World Cup and make sure that we go one better this time."
The full article contains 803 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
