THE league table never lies, and the story of a campaign is told throughout the gruelling slog of 38 games. At the end, the winners earn their reward, but looking back over the season it is possible to pinpoint moments in which triumph was born.

The actual moment of Celtic’s coronation as champions of the Scottish Premiership for the seventh successive season has yet to come, but come it will, and for Craig Gordon, it was in defeat that this latest piece of silverware was forged.

On the face of it, the 4-0 hammering meted out to Celtic by Hearts should have been the low point of the season. Defeat on the domestic front was an unfamiliar feeling for Brendan Rodgers’ hitherto “Invincible” side and what a stunning defeat it was.

But huddled on the Tynecastle turf after the game, the Celtic players decided their reaction to that moment would show what they were made of.

“It was an important part of the season, but we had prepared for that,” said Gordon. “When we were on the pitch at Tynecastle after losing, the manager told us to accept it.

“It was always going to happen at some point and he told us we’d have to deal with the consequences over the next few days. But he also said we’d come back stronger and be a better team for it.

“The manager had prepared for that moment and made sure we came back fighting. That was something we spoke about in pre-season. We knew it was likely we would suffer a defeat as no run lasts forever. Sure enough, when that did happen, we bounced back.

“When we lost to Hearts, we won three games in a row and didn’t concede a goal. That is the sign of a team that will win the league and dominate, and that’s what we did.

“The manager had told us that when the time came for the run to end, we would accept it and take it on the chin. We knew we would get stronger as a team and be successful.

“We kept together as a tight-knit unit. Everybody worked for each other and we came back strong and put down another marker.

“We made sure it didn’t start a run of defeats. This team has shown that time and again. We bounced back well from losing games.

“We’ve only lost two in two seasons, but a defeat could cause a bad run. But we went out, won the games, put in good performances and made sure that didn’t happen.”

Gordon thinks Celtic have been victims of their own success, having to follow the unprecedented unbeaten record from their previous campaign, and that in any normal season, their results would be lauded as remarkable.

“Last season was an exceptional record,” he said. “I doubt it will ever be done again. If it is, it’ll be a long time away. It’s such a difficult thing to do. You normally have one bad game, or you lose because of a red card or a penalty call that’s wrong. There are

so many things that can happen so going unbeaten for a full season

will be getting talked about for a long time.

“It was such a big achievement because it’s so difficult to do. We know how much it took to do that and how difficult it was.

“The expectations to do something similar this season were a bit high.

But we have certainly done well. To lose three in around 90 games is incredible.

“We have to be happy with this season too. To be so close to another three trophies is an incredible achievement. We are in an unbelievable position, we have got through cup games where anything can happen. It only takes one thing to happen and you are out, you don’t get another chance. But we have done that every time and we are close to getting all three trophies again.”

What has made their achievements this season all the more difficult, according to Gordon, is that the opposition have raised their game

too.

“A lot of teams have improved this season and you’ve got to give credit to them,” he said. “Hibs are a better team than they were last season, Kilmarnock are. Motherwell had a strange season losing a striker and then they have replaced him really well. They had a blip during all that happening, but they’ve come again and are a really strong team again.

“There’s some good players in those teams and when we’ve played against them they have given us difficult games.

“You have to look beyond the top two or three – Rangers and Aberdeen were up there last term; this season the strength in depth of the league goes even lower than that, so you are facing more difficult games and everybody off the back of that is then dropping more points, but it’s a better league for playing more competitive games. A lot of teams have really stepped up their game.”

While praising individual opposition players, such as Hibernian’s John McGinn and Dylan McGeouch, as well as Kilmarnock’s Youssouf Mulumbu, the goalkeeper hopes a popularity contest doesn’t deny Celtic captain Scott Brown the recognition he deserves when it comes to the Player of the Year award.

“You don’t have to like him to vote for him as the best player,” he said. “He deserves the votes on his football. I don’t think it’ll bother him one little bit that he’s not liked. In fact, he’ll probably enjoy it.

“It would be nice to see him get it. He’s put in so much effort for such a long period of time and in his testimonial year to still be going strong and putting in performances and leading the team and dominating games the way he does, it would be a great honour for him to get that at this stage in his career.”