Goalkeeper Craig Gordon has hailed team-mate Stuart Armstrong after the midfielder picked up the man of the match award on his Scotland debut on Sunday night.

Armstrong assisted striker Chris Martin in the 88th minute to give Scotland a crucial 1-0 win over Slovenia, meaning their hopes of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia are still alive.

And Gordon, who started between the sticks in Sunday’s win, has praised his Celtic and Scotland teammate given his impressive season so far.

The Hoops shot-stopper spoke of Armstrong’s Scotland debut to the Daily Mail, as well as highlighting the 24-year-old’s determination to break into the Celtic team.

He said:

To go into a Scotland team and play like he did on Sunday, I thought he was outstanding. The energy he brought into the midfield, he just ran his opposite number into the ground. Slovenia couldn’t deal with him.

To have that amount of energy in your engine room, with the quality he possesses as well, is great. He scores goals and makes goals. He is a real asset for any team to have.

He is turning into a big player and he is doing it in big games now.

He’s got everything, really, and is playing with so much confidence at the moment. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some really big teams looking at him.

Ian MacNicol/Getty Images Sport

That’s sometimes what you look for from players, to see how they do in the bigger games. He is contributing, scoring in games against Rangers and now creating goals for Scotland.

He is playing fantastically well at the moment. He wasn’t in the (Celtic) team at the start of the season but went away and worked really hard, got himself in the team and is now playing probably the best football he has ever played.

The former Dundee United man struggled to break into Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic side at the beginning of the season and has flourished and shown his true class since coming into that centre-midfield role.

He signed in 2014 from Dundee United along with Gary Mackay-Steven and showed his talent on occasion, though never seemed fully convincing given most of his gametime came when he played out on the left-wing.