Celtic goalkeeper Craig Gordon had no worries about teammate Kieran Tierney playing at centre-half for Scotland, joking that the youngster is so good he could play in goals.

Gordon hailed Tierney’s performance as he captained his country for the first time in central defence in the narrow defeat to The Netherlands on Thursday night.

And the stopper doesn’t think that playing Tierney away from his favoured left-back position affects his performance levels at all because he is such an accomplished all-round player.

“I don’t really know what his best position is because he can do anything,” said Gordon.

“I want to give him a shot of the gloves and see if he can do that as well! I’m sure he could because every position he plays he does exceptionally well.

“He is just a terrific footballer. He is good enough to go and play in midfield as well. It doesn’t matter where he is asked to play. He always gives everything he’s got.”

Gordon wasn’t surprised to see Tierney handed the armband for his country by interim boss Malky Mackay on Thursday night despite his tender years, becoming the youngest Scotland skipper since Darren Fletcher in 2004 at the age of just 20.

For Gordon, the natural leadership qualities he possesses made him an obvious choice.

“I was looking across the team and going through the potential captains and he was one of the top ones on my list,” he said.

“He has done it at Celtic and I’m sure there will be a lot more occasions when he is captain of his club and his country. He has always had the potential to be a captain.

“He is a leader, he leads by example and he is good in the changing room as well. He has such a strong character.”

For Gordon, there were encouraging signs for the future from the friendly against Dick Advocaat’s side, with a number of new caps handed out and a raft of young players given a chance.

And he singled out another Celtic teammate, Callum McGregor, for particular praise after making his long-awaited bow in the dark blue.

“I think we did well and had some good passages of play,” he said.

“We created a number of chances against a team of Holland’s quality. We had a game plan and a lot of it was carried out.

“We got chances from what we had tried to do during the week. From that point of view, it was quite successful. In the forward areas we went at them and caused them a few problems.

“There were good performances all round although I know from Celtic how good Callum can be. He can pull the strings with both his passing and his finishing.

“He was always going to be a good player to come into this squad. He is one of the fittest guys in our team, so he covers the ground as well. Defensively that is always going to help.

“Right across the pitch it was an energetic performance.”

Gordon was presented with a commemorative medal prior to the match at Pittodrie by Aberdeen and Scotland legend Willie Miller after earning his 50th cap in the World Cup qualifier against Slovakia in early October.

“I didn’t know that was happening,” he said. “I knew at some point I would get a medal for reaching 50 caps.

“It was nice to get that from Willie, especially in Aberdeen. He made a little speech and it was an absolute honour to receive it from someone like him.

“It is also an honour to reach 50 caps for my country as not many people do. I’m only the third goalkeeper to do it.

“I’m only one behind Alan Rough so I’m gunning for him. I have two more to get second place although I’m still a long way behind Jim Leighton.”

Gordon will now enjoy the free weekend to bank some much-needed rest before a hectic schedule kicks off at club level, with a visit to France to take on Paris Saint Germain and the League Cup final against Motherwell at Hampden to look forward to.

And he says that Celtic's hunger to keep their long unbeaten domestic run remains, despite surpassing their own British record of 63 games without defeat by beating St Johnstone last week.

“I don’t think we have a free midweek between now and the winter break,” he said.

“We have a lot of games in a short space of time, so we need to knuckle down. It is a tough run and the final is not far away.

“We want to go into that in as good a frame of mind as we possibly can.

“There is going to be no let up, so we need to be ready. We want to try and keep the record going as long as we can.

“A lot of hard work has gone into getting it and we want to try and stretch it as far as we can.

“We know it will go one day so we need to enjoy it while it lasts.”