Dean Shiels wants Hibs’ reward to be respect

GREATER respect is what Dean Shiels believes Kilmarnock earned as well as a trophy when he helped them claim the Scottish Communities League Cup in March.

He now wants the Scottish Cup final, and the chance to end a 110-year slight, to bring the same for his old club Hibernian, the striker returning to Easter Road this afternoon for the pair’s bottom-six fixture.

“I am delighted they are in the final,” Shiels says. “Being at Hibs, at the start of every season it was ‘this is our year to win the Scottish Cup’ and the fans deserve it. I have friends there too. Ivan Sproule is a very good friend of mine. Ian Murray, Lewis Stevenson… Paul Hanlon was just breaking through. All the staff, the kit man, and obviously Garry O’Connor, too.”

Shiels considers it says much of the standards set at Rugby Park that there is disappointment that remaining seventh is the highest placing the club can attain. Meanwhile the 27-year-old, last week named on the four-man shortlist for the PFA Scotland player of the year honour, doesn’t mince words when reflecting on the lowly standards of the Leith club as they scrap with Dunfermline to avoid relegation.

“They have got a lot of quality but at the start of the season they were awful,” he says. “Every team has gone through bad spells and Hibs’ just seemed to be longer than everyone else’s.”

Shiels calls the current campaign “the most enjoyable” of his career, and one which has seen him return to the fold with the Northern Ireland international side. His father Kenny, the Killie manager, has drawn the best from him following an unhappy spell at Doncaster. It is, though, up in the air whether that will continue to be the case next season. The playmaker made a substantial financial sacrifice in ripping up his previous contract to remain in Ayrshire beyond an initial six-month loan spell. He will be a free agent in a matter of weeks but acknowledges Kilmarnock are in pole position to keep him. Salary terms will not dictate.

“I would like to stay,” he says. “ Whether that happens or not I really don’t know. We haven’t spoken much at the moment.

“The last couple of months have been priceless. But money’s never come into anything in me making any decisions. When I started out as a kid I didn’t want to play to make money, I wanted to play to win trophies, play in good teams and win football matches playing the right way. I got more pleasure out of winning the League Cup than having an extra few quid.”

• Hibernian v Kilmarnock, today, 3pm.