Frankie Kent started his career with the Arsenal Academy before moving on. His path via Colchester United and Peterborough United has brought him to Tynecastle and he made his debut in Sunday’s 1-0 defeat by a slick Leeds United combine.
The Romford-born central defender loved the experience and looks forward to Hearts’ opening cinch Premiership fixture at St Johnstone on Saturday (kick-off 15.00) against a Perth side reeling from a poor start to the season in the Viaplay Cup.
They have suffered back-to-back defeats, 4-0 at home to Stirling Albion on Saturday in their final group stage game in the Scottish League Cup and that followed another defeat, this time by 2-1 to Ayr United, in the same competition.
Previously, Saints opened their League Cup campaign with 1-0 defeat to Stenhousemuir, but beat Alloa Athletic 4-0.
The 27-year-old centre-half and his Jambo team-mates will aim to increase the pressure on the Saints club and theri new manager Steven MacLean with a road win on Saturday and the 6ft 2in player looked back at the joust with Leeds and said: “We knew it would be tough.”
Kent joined the Arsenal Academy in 2002 and stayed there until 2012 then moved onto Colchester until 2014.
He played 127 games for Colchester scoring six goals and that stint ended in 2019 when he moved to Peterborough where he made 164 appearances scoring four goals.
Kent reflected on Sunday’s game and told Hearts TV: “First time out here, getting used to the surroundings and stuff and it was good. It was a tough game like we knew it was going to be and I really enjoyed it. I can’t wait to get properly going.”
He revealed that the coaching team told the players that out of possession they did really well against Leeds but they also intimated that in possession they could have been better.
Kent said: “Out of possession everybody worked their socks off and it (the game against Leeds) was a good test and something to take forward into the season.
“Once the last one (pre-season challenge) is out of the way you want to get straight into the season and we have a lot of games coming up after that but the full focus is on the first one. A good week of training and then we aim to get that one (St Johnstone) done.”
PICTURE: Teams before the start of Sunday’s challenge v Leeds United by Nigel Duncan
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