Craig Gordon determined to stretch Hearts Euro record as veteran eyes Europa League glamour nights

Craig Gordon knows the newly-expanded European competitions mean his latest record breaking feat at Hearts might not last long.

That’s why the age-defying goalkeeper is determined to stretch it as far as he can before finally hanging up the gloves. The 41-year-old overtook Henry Smith and Steven Pressley to become Hearts’ record European appearance maker in last week’s 1-0 Europa League play-off defeat to Viktoria Plzen.

Tonight’s second leg will take his tally to 24. And should they win and secure a minimum eight more games in the league phase then Gordon is determined to play in every one of them. The goalkeeper is gathering records like a second hand music store. He also holds the distinction of having made more appearances in Europe than any other Celtic goalkeeper and is now just 13 games short of making a 300th appearance for the Jambos.

Yet if Hearts are to become regulars in ‘league phase’ Euro football, Gordon knows the likelihood is his latest record being broken soon is high.

He said: “I was just talking about that very thing, that if we do continue to progress then there is no reason that somebody couldn't get there fairly quickly. At the moment a record might not last too long, you never know in football but hopefully that is a sign of things to come and there's many players coming up with the aspirations to get to that and beyond.

“This season we've got a chance hopefully to knock that up a wee bit further, that would be the idea to make it a bit more of a target for some of these guys to chase.”

Gordon is old enough to remember playing in the tournament as the UEFA Cup. Indeed it’s 21 years since he first ran out as a 20-year-old rookie to face Bordeaux in a 1-0 win in France.

In the time in between he’s