HAVING experienced the trauma of being dropped immediately after helping Celtic to reach the Champions League group stages, Craig Gordon is hardly about to become complacent about his position in the team.

Gordon featured in all of the Scottish champions’ qualifying matches only to find himself replaced by Dorus de Vries for their opening Group C game against Barcelona.

It was a savage blow for the 33-year-old, who had long held an ambition to play in Europe’s premier club competition proper, and one that still, even though he has subsequently reclaimed his place in the side, hurts.

Read more: Brendan Rodgers urges Jozo Simunovic to ignore interest from England and stay at CelticThe Herald: Celtic goalkeeper Craig Gordon was benched for the game against Aberdeen last weekend

Yet, the Scot, who is set to play in the Ladbrokes Premiership match against Ross County at the Global Energy Arena in Dingwall tonight, readily admits that he is enjoying life at Celtic at the moment.

He excelled as the Parkhead club drew 3-3 with Manchester City in the Champions League earlier this month and kept a clean sheet for them in the 1-0 Betfred Cup semi-final win over Rangers at Hampden on Sunday.

The former Hearts and Sunderland player also feels that he is steadily becoming more adept at the “sweeper keeper” role that Brendan Rodgers wants his goalie to perform.

Read more: Brendan Rodgers urges Jozo Simunovic to ignore interest from England and stay at Celtic

“It’s about staying in the team and doing what the manager wants me to do,” said Gordon. “When you are in possession of the gloves or the shirt you want to hang on to it. So it’s about doing the things he wants me to do.

“That’s three domestic clean sheets in a row now (Gordon has shut out Dundee, Motherwell and Rangers), so it’s been pretty good. That’s something that’s been quite enjoyable to get to know.

“We’re starting to form partnerships and it’s been something we’ve been working on for a long time, but it does take time and we feel as though we’re getting there with the positions we’re looking to get in to build attacks.

“The manager went in to great detail. The manager wants to get a lot of information into the team. It wasn’t something we did straight away. But certainly over the last wee while we’ve developed as a team and worked on it a lot more.

“Once I got to see exactly how it was working I felt a lot more comfortable in being able to do it myself and execute what he wants me to do.

“I tend to take these things in my stride and don’t get too high and don’t get too low. But no-one wants to be out of the team.

“But certainly since I’ve come back in I’ve felt confident in the way the team has been playing and the guys round about me. We’ve got good partnerships and hopefully I can continue.”

Gordon has struck up good understandings with the Celtic centre backs Kolo Toure, Erik Sviatchenko and Jozo Simunovic since coming back into favour – something that was obvious in the meeting with Rangers at the weekend.

He has been particularly impressed with how Simunovic, who returned to action after eight months out with a serious knee injury last month, has performed after such a long lay-off.

He feels the Croat suits the style Rodgers wants his team to play – building attacks patiently from the back instead of shelling the ball to safety – and believes he will improve further as he gets more games under his belt.

“Jozo is a great player and he is still so young as well,” he said. “He’s a fantastic centre-half, he’s got everything. He’s quick, strong, good in the air and calm on the ball.

“For the way we want to play he’s a great guy to have in there. Between him and Erik we’ve had a good understanding.

“In the Rangers game, Jozo got in the way of a goal-bound effort which was quite dangerous. But when they were in our final third we managed to get our blocks in. It’s credit to the guys in front of me that there wasn’t a great deal for me to deal with.

“At 0-0 it’s about keeping concentration and making sure we’re keeping the backdoor shut as we continue to press to get the lead. We managed to do that fairly well with the way we had a grip on the game and got the winner late on.”

Reaching the Betfred Cup final has led to inevitable speculation about Celtic winning a domestic treble this season, but Gordon is concentrating fully on the games they have coming up and keeping his place in the side.

Read more: Brendan Rodgers urges Jozo Simunovic to ignore interest from England and stay at Celtic

“The Scottish Cup has not even started yet, so we’re still quite a while away from that (a treble),” he said. “We’re in a final and that’s the next big one to look forward to. We’ve got a few games between now and then that we need to make sure we perform in, but it gives us something to look forward to. It’ll be a big game and one we want to win.

“Aberdeen, who we will face in the final, are always a difficult team to play against. Earlier in the season at Celtic Park they gave us a tough game and the scoreline was larger than the performance. They didn’t deserve to get beaten by quite as many as they did.

“But that just shows what we’ve got in our team. We’ve got a lot of goals in there and given the opportunities we can take them. It’ll be a good game. We’ve got them on Saturday and we’ll get a shot at them before we play here.

“Every time we play Aberdeen it’s a tough game and regardless of what the score is next week it’ll be a tough game at Hampden and one both sides will fancy their chances of getting the win.”