Coach hails young keeper as 'future for Hearts and Scotland' after Edinburgh derby defeat

Eva Olid’s side were beaten 4-1 by local rivals Hibs at the Tony Macaroni Arena. An 11-minute second-half burst saw the hosts score three times to add to their first-half opener and kill the game as a contest.

Rodgers, who recently turned 16, was preferred to Hearts No.1 Charlotte Parker-Smith between the sticks. She made her debut as a 15-year-old earlier in the campaign when the teams met at Tynecastle.

Though she would ultimately concede four times, Rodgers – trained from childhood by Hearts academy coach Kieren Elder – wasn’t at fault for any of the goals and made three strong saves to keep the scoreline respectable.

“Lisa is a fantastic talent. She'll no doubt be the future, not only for Hearts but for Scotland,” said Hearts assistant Sean Burt.

“At times she did really well with a couple of really important saves at crucial times. She made one really big save in the first five minutes and then another in the second half. She was unlucky with a couple of the goals but she wasn't at fault today. She's done really well and it's pleasing to see.

“She's definitely one of the best prospects Scotland has seen in a long time.”

The defeat to Dean Gibson’s outfit was the third time in four SWPL 1 games where Hearts have conceded four. It’s part of a worrying defensive trend after not conceding three in a single match prior to a 5-0 defeat to Rangers in January.

“We've conceded four against Partick, four against Spartans and another four today as well,” said Burt.

“Georgia Hunter was a big miss for us last week against Spartans, we missed her badly. And quite frankly we've had to do a bit of shuffling because we've had a few knocks as well.

“In football you want to have a consistent back-line and at times we've not been able to get that on the pitch, but we'll go back to training and work hard to rectify our mistakes.”

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