Hearts star Emma Brownlie is loving being the experience face in the dressing room

The 29-year-old was the club’s first-ever professional player to sign for Eva Olid’s side in the summer. Joining from Rangers who just lifted the SWPL1 title after going the league season unbeaten, Brownlie has helped to make her backline a brick wall this campaign as they boast the fourth-best defence in the division.

This is a massive improvement from last season as the club has gone from conceding 2.44 goals a game to just 1.08. Brownlie can easily be seen as the major catalyst for this chance as her experience has helped guide a young backline into one of the most feared in the division.

“It’s been good,” she told the Edinburgh Evening News. “I obviously came in at the start along with Ciara [Grant] as she has a lot of experience as well. We have experience in that backline and that defence so I think it has been great. It helps the youngsters in terms of Georgia Hunter has been great and you can see that the progress of her this season has been class.

“Coming into a young squad, Eva [Olid] made us very aware of that coming in, that we knew that we were going to be the experienced ones. It’s just about using that experience in the right way to help the youngsters.”

As the club continue to progress off and on the field, many may be eyeing silverware in the coming seasons. Hearts were knocked out of the Scottish Cup in the last two seasons by Celtic but made a good account of themselves evening going 1-0 up against the side last month. With Brownlie’s career being littered with trophies, the defender is hoping to add another one to her collection in Midlothian.

“In terms of what the club are doing and the investment they are putting in, you can see the way they are progressing,” she added. “Even from last season. The trajectory of the club is going in the right direction. You want to win everywhere you go. At the moment we need to be realistic in what we are doing. This season, if we finish fourth, that is a success for us. Then it is about closing the gap of the top three.”

Next up, Brownlie will face down her former club Hibs at Easter Road as they look to finally get one over their bitter rivals. Brownlie scored the opening goal in the first meeting between the two sides earlier this season. Now the 29-year-old is hoping to put in another good performance in front of the Sky Sports cameras.

“It’s always great when you have a game right around the corner because obviously you can just park it and move on,” she explained. “We are all looking for to the derby, it’s a big game, a big occasion. We just need to focus on the fact that it is a league game. We have played already at Easter Road this season so we have been in that environment. We just have to tackle it as if it was any other game.”