‘Calm and consistency’ the aim for experienced Hibs player

Katie Fraine is aiming to transmit ‘calm and confidence’ amongst her young backline.

The goalkeeper was one of the more experienced players to join the club over the summer as Hibs looked to move under a new direction under Grant Scott. Cementing herself as the new number one in-between the sticks, the 35-year-old has been commanding a young backline over recent games to a great deal of success. Hibs’ victory in the Edinburgh derby saw the defence as the star of the show for the visitors despite only average age only reaching 23.6 years old.

“I am quite accustomed to it, over the last five or six years I have had a young defence in front of me,” Fraine told the Edinburgh Evening News. “The most important thing is to offer calm and consistency. The more confidence the backline has in their goalkeeper, the more freedom they play with. That’s been my goal since coming in, to try and help them both be confident in themselves but to also be confident in me. Then they won’t fear mistakes and won’t fear just playing their game. They know that I have their back and that we are all working towards the same goal.”

The derby victory felt to be a big turning point for Hibs after a rocky start to the season. Performances have only continued to improve, and their hard work seemingly paid off at Tynecastle as they got their first victory in five games over their rivals. However, Fraine always had the belief that their fortunes would turn around and is hopeful that her team will start to build up some momentum.

Katie Fraine signed for Hibs in the summer. Credit: David Mollison

“These things take time and that is something we in the footballing world always forget,” she explained. “You just need a bit of patience and actually believe in what we are doing. Make sure all of the players and the club are buying in; keep your head down and work towards the same goal. That’s what we have tried to do here and encompass as a team. It is nice to see that all come together with the result against Hearts.

“This is a young and fairly new team, we knew it would take a bit of time for us to start clicking and connecting. Going into the win on Sunday, we started to show flashes of that. Coming out of the good result, it will be great for the confidence as we come back to play Aberdeen.”

Aberdeen is the side’s next test as they look to get back-to-back wins for the first time this season. The Dons have had a great start to the campaign and currently sit fifth with four wins out of six. However, with Hibs returning back to Meadowbank, Fraine is hopeful that her side can continue their upward trajectory on Wednesday night.

“We have a lot of confidence coming off the back of the derby win,” she added. We are looking forward to continuing the progress that we have been making all season.”