“It’s probably the most entertaining game I’ve ever been involved in…”
Gill Sherry
There’s nothing Ayrshire Magazine likes more than a local success story, and few are more successful than that of Steven Naismith.
Born in East Ayrshire, Steven has fond memories of playing football with his pals in Stewarton.
“Growing up, I was obviously getting into football, but I remember my mum and dad seeing an advert in the Kilmarnock Standard for players to go and play for Stewarton Annick.”
At this point, six-year-old Steven had only been kicking a ball about with his friends, but he began training for Annick under 8s.
“I never actually played any games, but I really enjoyed the training. It was in the centre which sits just across from the Brownie and Guide hut. It’s like an indoor gym that you would’ve grown up with in the 1980s and 90s. When I’m in it now it seems tiny, but when I was a kid, it was so big. It had proper goals and everything!”
Another memory that has stayed with Steven is playing at Red Ash Park.
“It’s where the Rose Reilly Centre is now. I lived a five-minute walk from there, so I used to go down and play at Red Ash Park with the big 11-a-side goals. The posts and the crossbar were about 60cm in depth. It was old-fashioned but I’ll always remember going down there and kicking a ball about.”
Although the young Steven obviously enjoyed playing football, he admits he never became obsessed with it like many youngsters do these days. He wasn’t focused on a footballing career or making lots of money, it was still very much about his love of the game.
“Growing up, even when I went to Kilmarnock at the age of 13-16 when I became professional, I never had those thoughts. I just loved playing.”
Prior to that, once he’d progressed from the under 6s to the under 8s at Annick, the team was coached by his father as well as the fathers of his friends, and they were really enthusiastic on the boys’ behalf.
“It became our whole routine. We used to train on a Friday night. Then me and my mates would walk down to the local chippy, get our chips and a bottle of juice, and go back round to the centre. All the coaches had an hour’s worth of football so we would go and watch that. Then you’d have your game at the weekend. That was routine. That was everything for us.”
Steven went on to play for Stewarton Annick under 9s and under 10s, enjoying plenty of success with the local club.
“We had a good team in Ayrshire. We started getting to cup finals, winning the league. Rather than just wanting to be a footballer, I just wanted to win more trophies. We were doing it as a team. I would win Player of the Tournament or whatever down at Dam Park or in Irvine or Cumnock or Mauchline, and I just loved that. That’s what made me want to do it. It wasn’t so much about wanting it as a career.”
Only when he signed a professional contract at Kilmarnock did he begin to realise he could actually play football for a living.
“If I look back now at my whole time at Kilmarnock, everything was done right. Playing for Kilmarnock under 13s I was never ‘the next big thing’. I always felt I had to work really hard to achieve anything, which was an amazing attribute for me to have. It wasn’t until after a year when I was full-time that people would say, ‘he’s got a good chance to become a professional… an international’. Kilmarnock was amazing for me through that process because you learn hard work, dedication and responsibility before any of the other stuff.”
During those early days with Kilmarnock FC, Steven trained with the knowledge that it might not work out.
Internationally, Steven won 51 caps for Scotland and scored ten goals, making his senior debut in 2007.
As a coach, he held both interim and permanent positions at Hearts before being announced as the new assistant manager of Scotland in August last year.
When I ask what he considers his biggest achievement he tells me that just being able to play football professionally was an achievement in itself. But he does, of course, have numerous highlights from both this playing and coaching career.
“I supported Rangers as a kid, and I played with them and won trophies with them so that was a highlight. But probably my biggest highlight was playing for my country. It was never on my radar and never something I thought I would be able to do. To do it 51 times is incredible. On top of that, actually being on the staff and making the World Cup is something that I hold in really high regard because I know how hard it was as a player.”
Which leads me to ask about ‘that game’ on 18th November.
“It was a real rollercoaster, but I just had that wee feeling of ‘we can do this’. Scoring after five minutes, a world-class goal, you’re thinking ‘brilliant!’ It’s probably the most entertaining game I’ve ever been involved in, in terms of unbelievable goals. It was ‘you’re in the World Cup, you’re out the World Cup, you’re in the World Cup’ constantly, all night, and then the late drama. But us on the bench, we did have a feeling, even when it was 2-2, that we’ve got a chance. Even now, we’re still on cloud nine.”
The fans are certainly still on cloud nine, and will no doubt remain so right up until June when the tournament starts. Does he have a message for those fans?
“Enjoy it! Enjoy this feeling, enjoy this achievement of getting there. We’ve got a good enough squad to potentially get out the group. We probably didn’t achieve what we would’ve liked in the previous Euros, but to go to the World Cup, there’s got to be some sense of ‘we can get through’.”
We speak briefly about the difference in standard between the English and Scottish Premier Leagues, with Steven stating that they’re just not comparable.
“The money in the last ten years that’s gone into English football has changed it. I don’t think there’s actually another league in the same ballpark. Unfortunately for Scotland, we’ve probably not promoted our product well enough in the last 20 years to progress anywhere near what the Premier League in England has, so there’s lessons for us in Scotland to learn. But we’ve got a good product. We’ve got good teams. We’ve got a fan base that follow our teams religiously, and we probably could make it a better thing than it is at the moment.”
Could Scotland’s involvement in the World Cup be the catalyst, perhaps?
“I do think there’s an element generationally, a shift in the mentality and the feel and the look of it. There’s definitely been that sense since the result against Denmark.”
In the meantime, Steven believes that football still begins at grass roots level and that, maybe, things need to change there too.
“Growing up, there were loads of strengths that I gained from that environment. Over the last 20 years, the professionalism side has overtaken the enjoyment and fun. Young players now as quickly as possible become mini professionals. Their whole month and year are dictated by a strict routine. It’s all focused on ‘I’m going to be a footballer’ and I’ve seen from my personal experience the amount of kids that are left with their dreams shattered when they’re just 14 years old. It’s crazy. The dial needs to come back a bit.”
His closing comments stem from his memories once more of his own footballing childhood.
“The innocence and fun and competitiveness… that, for me, was the biggest enjoyment playing at Stewarton.”
It’s been a pleasure hearing Steven’s childhood memories, and to learn more about his Ayrshire success story.
