John McGinn urges Hearts star Craig Gordon to ditch any retirement plans as Austria reaction proof of progress

John McGinn has called on evergreen Craig Gordon to shelve any plans to hang up his gloves as Scotland’s No.1.

McGinn watched the 39-year-old put on a heroic display in Vienna on Tuesday night as Steve Clarke’s side escaped from Austria with an eight-game unbeaten run intact – heading into this summer’s World Cup play-offs.

And McGinn then urged the Hearts veteran to continue to roll back the years for the sake of the national team.

The Aston Villa stalwart nodded: “Yes, some of the saves he pulls off are nuts. I don’t know if he’ll stop any time soon but he shouldn’t because he’s as good as ever. If it wasn’t for him we could have been two or three goals behind in Vienna.

“But we need everyone in the squad and everyone in the team to play their part and the good thing for us is that everyone who comes on the park looks like they can fit into the role seamlessly and the manager deserves full credit for that.

“He’s given us a style of play that everyone is buying into.”

McGinn’s second-half wonder goal appeared to have Scotland cruising towards victory in Vienna only for the Austrians to launch a late comeback mission and salvage a 2-2 draw.

And Scotland’s vice captain insists the surrendering of a two-goal lead has given Clarke’s players another big lesson in their development as a tournament ready team with potential showdowns against Ukraine and Wales to come on the road to Qatar 2022.

He said: “It’s a disappointing result and the players have spoken about it. Yes, over the piece a draw was probably fair – and Austria probably felt hard done by to be two goals behind – but once you get into that sort of position away from home against a team like that you have to see the game out or build on it.

“So it’s a