Kent knew that he’d be a big hit at Hearts but there’s still work to do
When the awards are dished out at the end of the campaign, Hearts’ Frankie Kent will be in contention for signing of the season.
An understated arrival from Peterborough United in the summer, the 28-year-old centre-half has played every minute of every Premiership match this season for the Jambos. He has helped them cement third place and even when the team hit a rough patch earlier in the season, he was one of their better performers.
Comfortable in a three or a two, the ex-arsenal youth is dominant in the air and positionally sound. It is little wonder manager Steven Naismith turns to him every time.
Kent’s stats make for impressive reading too. He’s played 2,250 minutes, sits seventh in the league for aerial duels won per game at 5.3 and his pass completion is above 80 per cent.
He’s only been booked three times across 25 games in all competitions and tops the number of clearances per match for the Jambos at 5.4. Clearly, he is a precious part of this so far successful Hearts team.
“In terms of runs of games, I have been quite fortunate to stay fit for the last four or five years,” said Kent ahead of this afternoon’s match against Motherwell. “And I have been lucky enough to play quite a few games in that time as well.
“In terms of performances and the team doing well this is up there with the best seasons so far. My confidence is quite high at the minute and performances help with that. Hopefully it can continue.”
The Hearts fans have taken to Kent too, penning a “magic hat” song to mark his performances. “It’s nice to have the fan interaction and them take to me so well,” continued Kent. “But in terms of myself, I expected this to happen in a lot of ways. I have confidence in myself to know I could come here and do quite well.
But obviously as a team it has been helped by how results have been going, really.
“The performances over the last two, three months, that’s what we were waiting for. It took us a while to get going. In terms of myself I was expecting to do this, I’d have been disappointed if I didn’t. I’m taking it game by game.”
The challenge now is for Hearts to maintain their form. Twelve points clear in third place, each win takes them closer to their destination.
“We are on a good run and hopefully we can just maintain it,” said Kent. “We know we can't be inconsistent with our play and our approach in games. We want to try and stay up there.
“Obviously, you know the gap, we have seen the gap, but as a professional group we just want to keep our foot down and keep going to win as many games as we can.
“We just want to finish as high as we can and see where that takes us. Third place is the one everyone wants to go for.
"Obviously we would like to be a bit higher but that's what everyone is focusing on.”