Steven Naismith shares his thoughts on the upcoming CIS Cup Final, his
wonder goal over Caley, and other bits & bods....
"I've never played at Hampden and it will be great to finally get the
chance to play at such a wonderful stadium. I have only ever been there to
meet up with the Scotland Under-19s and the Under-21s so it will be
interesting to experience it on a matchday. It is the same for a lot
of the guys in the Killie squad and the CIS Cup Final is going to be a
very big day for the club and the town in general. I can't wait and I
know I probably won't be able to sleep on Saturday night even though we're
going away at the start of the week to prepare for the game and deal with
our nerves. We'll go into the game in confident mood after this win and
we believe we can win the trophy. We've been pretty evenly balanced with
Hibs over the last couple of seasons and we're very similar in the way we
like to play the game. We definitely fancy our chances going into the
Final with experienced players such as Gary Locke and Allan Johnston to
call on for advice. Hibs got to this stage three years ago before losing
to Livingston and that may turn out to be a slight advantage for them but
it's a hard one to call"
"I was 10 when Killie won the Scottish Cup in 1997 and I was at Ibrox to
see them beat Falkirk in the Final. There are pictures of that game dotted
around Rugby Park and I'm looking forward to playing my part in another
big day for the club. There will be a healthy support for us at Hampden -
just like there was in 1997 at Ibrox - and we'll do all we can to make
sure we don't let them down."
On His Wonder Strike Vs Caley..."Grant Murray did
brilliantly down the right and hung his
cross
up in the air. I didn't see anything else on so I just launched into the
overhead kick and was delighted when I turned round and saw it was in the
back of the net. I've tried it a few times in training and they either go
in or hit Row Z so I was lucky it went in this time. But the most
important thing was the three points as we're in a great position now in
the race to finish in the top six and we can now concentrate fully on the
CIS Cup Final."
"I
was at Rangers when I was a youngster (13 years old) but they played me at
left-back and I wasn't too happy about it so started going to Kilmarnock
instead. I signed for Killie when I was 13 and I've come up through the
youth ranks and graduated to the first team. Cup finals don't come around
very often for a provincial club like us and nobody knows how this game is
going to turn out. Rangers and Celtic usually get to finals every season
and Killie would have been major underdogs had one of the Old Firm been
involved in this match. We're probably still underdogs against Hibs but
we'll give it our best shot. It might take a mistake or a bad pass or a
bit of magic from one player to win the CIS Cup Final."
