Focused Kingsley happy to finally be able to show off free-kick skills
Years of patience and practice have gone into honing Stephen Kingsley’s set-piece prowess – but it is only now that he is being given the platform to impress.
On Saturday, against St Mirren, he offered up another free-kick gift to the football gods, whipping an inch-perfect delivery into the postage stamp corner of Jak Alnwick’s goal to build on Gary Mackaysteven’s opener and ensure all three points would be staying in Gorgie.
However, he says that, despite years of hard work, it is only since arriving at Hearts that he has been able to showcase his talent.
“I didn’t score any free-kicks before coming to Hearts because I was playing with such talented players in England,” said Kingsley. “I was doing my practice, but I just never got the chance to take them.
“Gylfi Sigurdsson took them at Swansea, and he was sensational at them. Jarrod Bowen at Hull was brilliant as well and Harry Wilson came on loan, so I never got a look in. Now, to get the opportunity to take them has been brilliant.
“It is about working on it. You can do it one time out of 20 and put that on Instagram and look great, but it’s more important to do it consistently and do it during a game.”
His fourth goal of the season, the precision execution that was his third free-kick, was all the more impressive when taken in conjunction
with his quality defensive performance.
“Sometimes you can overthink it and not think about your defensive duties, but I’ve scored a few this season and it is nice to contribute to the team that way, as well as getting a clean sheet,” conceded the 27 year-old, left-sided centre back, whose form has seen him touted for a Scotland recall, which is something he would love, although he insists he cannot allow himself to be distracted by such dreams
when he has a job to do at Hearts.
Against their Paisley challengers, Hearts had to dig deep, especially on the back of last week’s defeat away to Motherwell.
Both teams pressed them, both fought for the points but, unlike at Fir Park, where Kingsley believes Hearts were “bullied”, there was an intransigence to the home performance against St Mirren, with Craig Gordon pulling off goalkeeping heroics and the rest
of the team managing to press ahead and plot a win.
Kingsley said: “It was a learning experience and we will get those games at times. Sometimes you have to grind it out and find other ways to win.
“We want Tynecastle to be a fortress, but now we just need to take the home form into the away games and hopefully the wins come with that.”
Protecting that unbeaten home record, it allowed them to see out the weekend in third spot, opening up a two-point gap on the chasing Dundee United.
“It’s massive to bounce back from those disappointments,” said Kingsley. “After Aberdeen we were hurt after it and reacted with a 5-2 win over Dundee United with a great performance.
“The Motherwell game hurt and we had to pick ourselves up and look at the bigger picture. We have had a good start to the season. Yes, there have been a few bad performances, but we bounced back again.”