Exclusive: Frankie Kent on Hearts improvement and absence of teammate

It’s now two weeks until Hearts are back in action as they welcome St Johnstone to Tynecastle following the international break. The Jambos held onto their 2-1 lead at Fir Park on Saturday and now head into the two week break with a vital three points and fourth place in the league. 

For players, managers and fans, the win over Motherwell was indispensable. While Lawrence Shankland’s brace justifiably hit the headlines, there was an improved defensive strategy that enabled the Jambos to remain in the lead.

Frankie Kent was one key figure who both enabled Shankland’s opening goal as well as ensured a tight backline even when Motherwell were throwing everything to try and find an equaliser. Speaking exclusively to Edinburgh News, the English centre-back admitted: “It was just nice to win! Obviously it was a bit tense at the ending of the game with the penalty which obviously allowed them to get a bit more momentum going towards us. It was a good performance, we controlled the first half and did it for the majority of the second half. Then it was just tough with the bombardment at the end. but we dealt with it.”

In the last block of fixtures, we have seen several occasions where Hearts have conceded two goals in quick concession and there was a fear this could well have been the case against the Wells on Saturday. However, Kent and his fellow defenders Stephen Kingsley and Kye Rowles made certain Hearts maintained their one goal lead. 

When asked what the difference was between the aforementioned performances and the success against the Well, Kent said: “It’s hard to put a finger on it because I don’t think it’s a specific thing that’s been ‘that's the reason’. I think it’s just been small little things, a few decisions from us, or little things we haven’t done well enough individually or as a team as well in terms of just sticking in and just waiting the next five minutes and keeping in shape.”

Of course it wasn’t just his defensive prowess that aided Hearts’ three points. Kent provided an assist, heading the ball towards Shankland off an Alex Lowry corner and after 27 minutes the Jambos were 1-0 up. 

Kent was justly delighted with his efforts and when asked if this was the sign of more to come the 27-year-old said: “Yeah definitely! I’ve had my fair share of chances at scoring, so to try and set one up and I was just happy that my header stayed down and someone else could put it in. But hopefully it’s a sign of things to come and hopefully I can get a few more goals.”

There was one name missing from the matchday action, however. Cammy Devlin has hit the headlines in the past weeks for his notable absences. The Australian midfielder started on the bench in both fixtures against Rangers and was an unused sub against Motherwell.

Speaking about the decisions, Kent said: “The boys that did come on did really well. Obviously Cammy’s been brilliant this year already so maybe it was just the manager bringing other boys on. But the boys that did, made a real difference.”

It’s now two weeks until the Jambos are back in action and the centre-back is under no illusion as to how important grabbing more three point bundles will be in the battle for third.

Following the international break, Kent said of the upcoming games against St Johnstone and Kilmarnock: “(We’ve) just got to take every game as it comes. Definitely (I) feel like we need to be pushing and need to aim to win every game so we will just be taking it game by game and hopefully we can push up the league and get the run of form and stay consistent.”