Kilmarnock v East Fife: Fife thru a lens

Steve Hislop spends his days among the myopic but his vision of cup glory is crystal clear, he tells Martin Hannan

It must be very tempting for East Fife striker Steve Hislop whenever he sees a poor decision to say to the referee “pop round to my shop on Monday morning”. For those referees not in the know, that would be baffling. They might be more annoyed, however, if they found out that Hislop owns a respected optician’s business in his native Edinburgh.

The Opticians in Marchmont on the capital’s Warrender Park Road is the day job for 33-year-old Hislop, formerly of East Stirlingshire, Ross County, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Gillingham, Livingston, Raith Rovers and Arbroath.

Only in his brief sojourn south of the Border, where he played only eight matches, has Hislop failed to score goals for his side, and his travels and background mean that the younger men at Methil are keen to hear what he has to tell them about football.

“I am the oldest, and it’s great that the youngsters ask me advice,” said Hislop. “I am in my veteran years now, and I know my playing career is coming to an end soon, but I am enjoying playing and passing on my experience.”

Though he will stay in football in some capacity, perhaps on the agency side, Hislop has more or less ruled out coaching, and certainly his wife Gayle will not miss his direct involvement in the game: “She says I am a moaning git when I lose.”

Meanwhile his business is going along nicely, Hislop having fallen into the optician’s trade almost by accident after studying accountancy before taking up senior football.

The game with all its ups and downs – he has suffered serious injury in the past – still gets to him and you can tell from his voice that Hislop is really excited about East Fife’s latest attempt at giant killing. The Fifers from the Second Division travel to SPL club Kilmarnock on Tuesday, having defeated Elgin, Dunfermline and Aberdeen in the previous rounds of the Communities League Cup. The victory in Aberdeen was achieved on penalties, and means East Fife have the chance for a historic hat-trick.

“We’re going for three wins over SPL teams in a row,” said Hislop. “It’s going to be tough, but nobody fancied us against Dunfermline or Aberdeen and we took care of them, so anything is possible.”

This quarter final tie has the makings of a cracker, even though there are ostensibly two whole leagues between Kilmarnock and East Fife, whose main chance will come if the home side think they are in for an easy night.

“I hope they treat us lightly,” said Hislop, “then we have to hope that they have an off day while we play at our very, very best and get a bit of the rub of the green but, given our last two results in the competition against Dunfermline and Aberdeen, sadly I don’t think Kilmarnock will make the mistake of taking us lightly.

“Having beaten two SPL teams, I would think that, if we can beat a third and make it into the semi-final of a major tournament, then that would have to be the best result in East Fife’s recent history.

“It might even be the biggest result of all, and yes, I know that East Fife won the League Cup three times and the Scottish Cup before that, but this run has been achieved as part-timers, and we are now playing at a different level than back then.

“Seriously, did anyone imagine East Fife going for a place in the semi-finals before the competition started?”

East Fife’s league record is nothing to write home about as they currently sit just above the play-off zone in the Second Division, but the team have shown they can play well above that ranking.

Hislop said: “We have a manager in John Robertson and assistant manager in Gordon Durie who drum it into us what we need to do to win games, and sometimes we seem unable to do that in the league but, as a footballer, you always seem to raise your game against opposition from a higher division, which is probably the wrong attitude but that’s the nature of the beast.

“We’ll be going to Rugby Park to play for a win, that’s all we can do, but we won’t be gung ho about it. The manager will play the same tactics – he doesn’t change them for anybody – and I am sure it is going to be a good game, because like Kilmarnock, we like to pass the ball as well.”

Robertson has been a major influence on Hislop’s footballing life: “I was a Hearts fan growing up and he was my hero. Then I was his first-ever signing at Inverness and I’ve played under him at Livingston and now East Fife, so player-wise I reckon I know him better than most.

“He’s always bubbly and his enthusiasm is infectious, but he can be tough when needed and I’ve been on the wrong end of a couple of ear-bashings from him.”

Hislop and his colleagues will surely be reminded by Robertson and Durie that taking East Fife into a semi-final and beating SPL opposition again will give them a place in the Fifers’ history books. It’s an incentive no footballer would ever ignore.