Taylor Discusses 50th Appearance & 'Looking Upwards'

Hibernian Women centre-back Linzi Taylor is delighted to be back on the pitch following a lengthy injury lay-off and is now “looking upwards” heading into the split.

The 31-year-old made her first start for the Hibees in over three months in our professional 3-0 away victory over Aberdeen – with Taylor playing 70 minutes to help the team keep a third consecutive league clean sheet and win. 

After making her first start in 10 matches, the defender praised those around her in the squad and the coaching staff.

“It's been a long couple of weeks but the group has been fantastic with me, the medical staff as well,” said Taylor. “Everyone is still making sure you're involved. 

“It's been hard work over the past couple of weeks but it's just nice on a personal level to get back involved with the group and to get my first start (back). 

“I’m happy with the three points, the team scoring a couple of goals, and there being positives to take from it.”

Taylor returned to action as a substitute against Motherwell at Meadowbank earlier this month, receiving a great welcome onto the park from the home crowd. 

The outing was particularly special, as Linzi reached a half-century of appearances for Hibernian in the process. 

“I didn't actually know it was my 50th appearance until I saw the social media post but it's always nice,” Taylor commented.

“It’s always a nice personal milestone and something I'm quite proud of, so now to cap it off with two clean sheets – which shows as a group that we're doing well defensively along with goals at the top end of the pitch coming as well. 

“Things are starting to click under Joelle and hopefully you see that over the next couple of weeks that we're getting along great together as a group.”

Now fully fit, Taylor has a few weeks to impatiently wait before getting back out on the pitch again for the Hibees due to the upcoming international break, but remains eager to improve on our current league standing once fixtures resume next month. 

“We’re looking upwards. We know as a group we've not done as well as what we would have hoped, but you never know what can happen in the split and us as a group. 

“We just want to win games and if you're doing that, taking it game by game and winning the games, you never know what can happen. For us, it is just game-by-game and there are positives to take hopefully from that.”