Craig Gordon sets his next Hearts target - Man Utd, Roma, Spurs and other clubs could help

The veteran goalkeeper’s pursuit of records goes on

Craig Gordon became Hearts’ record European appearance holder in Plzen last week. His outing against Viktoria in the Europa League play-off first leg was his 23rd for the club in continental competition. He is 41 years old but the goalkeeper’s thirst for more records is apparently unquenchable. He is already looking at the next target on the horizon.

Gordon is 13 games from 300 competitive Hearts appearances and fully intends reaching that mark before Christmas. He seems to be ahead of Zander Clark in the pecking order for now. Progress to the Europa League’s new-look league phase could help him get to the next landmark quicker as the competition now has two more matches than the Conference League.

Whoever loses out at Tynecastle Park on Thursday night drops into UEFA’s third competition. Gordon is desperate to go through in what would be an unprecedented achievement for a club he has served with distinction over two spells. Among the clubs Hearts could encounter in this season’s Europa are Manchester United, Roma, Tottenham Hotspur, Lazio, Eintracht Frankfurt, Porto, Real Sociedad, Lyon and Fenerbahce.

“The next one will be 300 appearances,” he said without hesitation when asked about the European appearance record. “I don't know how far away I am from that but I'm away to look it up. Less than 20, I would think.” Should Hearts’ European adventures continue over the coming years, it may be possible for someone to beat his tally.

“Yes, absolutely. 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 are 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.”

Even in the twilight of a glittering playing career at club and international level, Gordon was still inspired when chosen as Hearts’ goalkeeper for what became a 1-0 defeat in Czechia last Thursday. He fought back courageously from a double leg break suffered in December 2022 and admitted a driving force throughout the rehabilitation process was getting that European appearance record.

“That was definitely something I thought about when I was in the rehab gym coming back - to try and get that one more appearance in Europe to have that record on my own. Those were driving factors,” he said. “The next one is I'm close to 300 appearances so I need to go for that. But there's always something to aim for and I use it as motivation. I use it when things are maybe getting a little bit tough in training or you don't see the light at the end of the tunnel. There's always something that I just have in my mind that I can go back to that drives me on.

“At the time [when the Hearts team was named], I just wanted to concentrate on the game. Definitely afterwards and on the way back on the plane, there was time to reflect and look at the last couple of years, see how far I've come and what I've had to go through to get that final one to get over the line on that record.

“That was a nice moment, it would have been nice if it had been a clean sheet, that would have been pretty special to mark it with that. But we're right in the game. From that point of view, it was job done that we bring it back to Tynecastle with a game on and a real chance to try and progress. I’m proud to get that but also straight after that there's always the next one and the next thing to aim for.”

A two-hour wait for a drugs test ensured the keeper had plenty post-match thinking time in the Doosan Arena. “Yeah, there were four of us in there so I just tried to digest the game,” said Gordon. “There was obviously the frustration of the late goal so things were fairly quiet. I knew that the rest of the lads were away back to the hotel for some food and I was stuck in a small room waiting to be able to do the test.

“I've lost count of how many I've done, I must have done 40 or 50 in my career, but it's always annoying to have to sit there. You want to be with the boys and talk through things but it's got to be done, you have to go through that and I met up with the boys quite a bit later on. I think there were three or four of them still not in their beds but it's just something that comes with these big games.”

And Gordon would know given he has played in so many. His first European outing was against Bordeaux in the Parc Lescure at the age of 20 back in November 2003. He did not expect to become Hearts’ record European appearance holder more than 20 years later. “Maybe not at this age, maybe if I had done it sooner,” he smirked. “To get to this stage and still being able to compete at this level is something that I will look back on as it's been a big achievement.

“At the moment I'm right in the middle of it, I'm concentrating on sitting there day by day being the best that I can be. It's a big challenge to stay at this level but I enjoy it. That's what I've done my whole life and I still feel good so we'll see. There are a few European games [at Tynecastle] I’ve played in over the years. The recent European ones: Rosenberg, I didn't play, RFS I did when we won. Those are our special games, you can hear it, you can feel it, it's a different atmosphere inside the ground and hopefully we can create another one of those on Thursday night.”

It is put to him that playing 30 times in Europe - as is possible - for a club other than Celtic or Rangers would be quite an achievement. Gordon is quick to point out he has another record from his time in Glasgow. “I think I've still got the Celtic record for a goalkeeper as well, I got 60-odd appearances there,” he revealed. “Between the two, I've managed to play in Europe quite a lot. That's what you want. You want to play at the end of the league to get that opportunity and hopefully I can do that for a little while yet.”

Although the Conference League parachute acts as a safety net, Hearts are in no mood to accept that with the Plzen tie firmly in the balance. “No, we're not thinking about that at all, we want to win the game, try to win it and go into it the best competition that we can. The names that are in Europa League, the size of clubs are enormous, I'm sure the fans would love a few trips to some of the bigger European teams and clubs. We want to be part of that and to do as well as we possibly can.

“It's about the whole team, the club testing themselves at that level and seeing what it takes to get back there and to improve. There's only one way to find out and that's to do it and see, experience what the next step and the next level is and try to get there.”

Perhaps surprisingly, he has still to sort out a memento from that record-breaking outing in the Czech Republic. “It would always be something to mark it, perhaps I can extend it a little bit further and keep one of those tops when it's at 30, maybe. We'll see,” said Gordon. “It would be nice to keep something of that because, as I say, it was something that definitely kept me going at times where I thought it was getting more and more difficult to do that again. It is special to me. I'll probably ask the kit man to see what he's got to keep something aside from the game.”