Steve McIlhone (born 24 May 1969) is a Scottish former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

for Hibernian and East Fife.

Club career

Hibernian

McIlhone started his career at Hibernian in 1986, sharing a dressing room with Hibernian legend

Paul Kane Paul Kane (September 3, 1810 – February 20, 1871) was an Irish-born Canadian painter whose paintings and especially field sketches were known as one of the first visual documents of Western indigenous life. A largely self-educated artist, P ...

. The forward caught the eye of clubs in England and had trained with

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

for a week, but left the Hibees without making a single first team appearance.

East Fife

He had a short spell at the

West Lothian West Lothian (; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, bordering (in a clockwise direction) the City of Edinburgh council area, Scottish Borders, South Lanarkshire, North Lanarkshire and Falkirk (council area), Falkirk. The modern counci ...

club Blackburn United before joining East Fife. McIlhone made 13 appearances without scoring for the Fifers and was released by then manager Gavin Murray in 1989.

Whitburn

After leaving Fife, McIlhone joined Whitburn for the remainder of his playing career. He was part of the squad that reached the

Scottish Junior Cup The Scottish Junior Cup is an annual football competition organised by the Scottish Junior Football Association (SJFA). The competition has been held every year since the inception of the SJFA on the 2nd October 1886 and, as of the 2023–24 ed ...

final in 1995, but ultimately lost 2–0 to

Camelon Juniors Camelon Juniors Football Club are a Scottish football club based in Camelon, in the Falkirk district. The team plays in the , having moved from the junior leagues in 2018. Despite this move, the club has decided to retain the "Juniors" part o ...

Coaching career

McIlhone was appointed as

Steve Pittman Steve Pittman (July 18, 1967 in Wilson, North Carolina) is an American former soccer Defender (association football), defender who spent most of his career in the Scottish leagues. He also played professionally in the United States with Major So ...

's assistant manager at Broxburn Athletic in 2008. He was part of the Brox team that won the

Scottish Junior Football East Region Premier League South The Scottish Junior Football East Region Premier League South also known for sponsorship reasons as the McBookie.com East Premier League South, was the second-tier division of the East Region of the Scottish Junior Football Association and sat ...

in 2009–2010. McIlhone stepped down from the position of assistant manager in 2012 due to work commitments. He rejoined the Broxburn Athletic coaching staff when Pittman returned as manager in 2023.

References

1969 births Living people Scottish men's footballers Scottish Football League players Men's association football forwards Hibernian F.C. players East Fife F.C. players Whitburn F.C. players Blackburn United F.C. players Footballers from Edinburgh Broxburn Athletic F.C. non-playing staff {{Scotland-footy-forward-1960s-stub