Craig Gordon always wants more. Even at 41. Or perhaps because he is 41.

There was great satisfaction in becoming Heart of Midlothian's sole leader for appearances in European competition when he featured in the 1-0 loss to Viktoria Plzen in the Europa League play-off first leg.

But there is already a desire to tick off the next milestone. That milestone? 300 appearances for his boyhood club.

The goalkeeper is usually on the ball with such records but wasn't quite sure how far away he was. He suggested fewer than 20. He was correct. Just 13 matches stand between him and the 300 club. 

It would lift him above Andrew Herd and Bobby Kirk into 38th spot in the club's appearance holders. John A Johnson, Davie Holt, Paddy Crossan and Jim Jefferies would be the next ones in sight.

As each record falls it provides the goalkeeper with a buzz.

"That was definitely something that 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," he said.

“Those were driving factors. 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.”

It was a bittersweet evening in Plzen when Gordon broke the club's European record. He was seconds away from a clean sheet, providing symmetry to the one he made on his Euro debut in the 1-0 win in Bordeaux.

He was stuck at the stadium for two hours after the game as he went through a standard drug test. It meant he wasn't able to see former Hearts striker Michael Pospisil who he had planned to meet up with in the aftermath or dissect and discuss the 1-0 loss with team mates.

"There were four of us in there so I just tried to digest the game really and there was obviously the frustration of the late goal so things were fairly quiet," Gordon said.

"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 and 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.”

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He added: "On the way back on the plane was a time to reflect and look at the last couple of years and 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."

The prospect of another seven games, at least in Europe, also provides the opportunity to hit the 30 mark for European appearances. Perhaps wary that there could be a player in a position to put pressure on his new record.

"If we do continue to progress then there is no reason that somebody couldn't get there fairly quickly," Gordon said.

“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.”

With such a focus on records and milestones, does Gordon keep mementos to mark the occasions?

"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.

"But yeah 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."