IF all goes according to plan, Gemma Fay will become the first Scottish footballer to reach 200 caps. It could have happened already had injuries not restricted the goalkeeper to playing in just two of Scotland’s seven games this year.

That leaves the 35-year-old on 197 appearances, and with three more friendlies scheduled ahead of the Euros, there will be a minimum of six games to help her reach the magical 200 before she retires from international football.

Fay’s long journey started in Perth, where she played football with her brothers and at primary school – but her first whiff of the big time was selling pies at McDiarmid Park.

“There’s got to be some of us somewhere,” she shrugs of supporting St Johnstone. When the pie stall wasn’t busy, she got to study the goalkeeping techniques of Alan Main and Andy Rhodes.

Fay’s first Scotland appearance was aged 16 in a 1-1 Euro qualifier against the Czech Republic. Her debut preceded even Vera Pauw’s arrival as head coach in 1998 – Jim Fleeting was in temporary charge.

Anna Signeul then replaced Pauw in 2005, making Fay her captain four years later.

“Probably Anna,” Fay responds, when asked who has shaped her football most. “She has been here 12 years in the most formative time of my adult career.”

Fay’s near-automatic selection under the Swede has inevitably restricted opportunities for other goalkeepers. Yet if being Signeul’s skipper has enhanced Fay’s playing opportunities, her longevity has been underpinned by her own enormous strength of character, determination and drive.

A woman of many clubs, Fay’s organised football started on Perth’s North Inch with a girls’ side which evolved into Jeanfield Swifts. “My mum dragged me down,” she says.

After that, she needs most of her fingers to reel off her old clubs. “St Johnstone, Aberdeen Ladies, Ayr United, Brighton and Hove Albion, Hibernian, Leeds United, Celtic, Glasgow City and now Stjarnan.”

The move to the Icelandic champions has seen her become a full-time professional for the first time. It is a short-term fix after she started the season as No 2 to Lee Alexander at Glasgow City – her day job at sportscotland will be open for her after the Euros.

Fay’s decision to up sticks when she could have taken the easy option of sitting on the City bench and hoping for a recall, underlines her resolve to remain Signeul’s first choice for the Euros. If and when that happens, it will crown a career of many highlights.

She reels them off: “Winning the first league title with Ayr United; reaching the FA Cup and League Cup finals with Leeds; playing in Europe for the first time ever with Ayr, and being able to do it again with Hibs and Glasgow City; winning 10 in a row with Glasgow City last year.

“Internationally, having the opportunity to play so many times for my country and qualifying for European Championship.”

Fay had earlier opportunities to play football full time, most notably when she was 27 and had an enticing offer from a Spanish club. Tragically it coincided with her mother becoming terminally ill, and Fay returned to the family home to look after her prior to her death in 2009.

“It was one of those times in life when football is put in perspective,” she says. “It had always been my dream to go and play professionally, but family comes first.”

When Scotland were denied a place in Euro 2013 thanks to Spain’s injury time play-off goal, Fay was inconsolable. She had saved a penalty in both legs, only to be beaten at the very end.

“After my mum died I did nothing but focus on football,” she recalls. “It took up all my spare time. I trained and worked, trained and worked.

“After the Spain game I wept for about 10 minutes. That was the first time I realised all I’d been doing was focusing on the one thing, which was to qualify, and now I had to deal with the other stuff.

“From a team perspective we were also convinced we were going to qualify, so to lose in the manner we did was emotionally so hard to take.”

And the 200 caps?

“Folk always ask about that, but right now it’s hard for me to get to 198 because the competition is so hard,” she says. “I’m just looking at doing everything I can to secure a starting spot for the Euros.”