How did Kenny Shiels' son Jody end up managing in the Outer Hebrides?

"People say 'you're Dean Shiels' brother, you're Kenny Shiels' son,' but I want to be my own man. Part of doing that was getting away, getting responsible."

Jody Shiels, the player-manager of Outer Hebrides side Harris FC, is on a mission. The 30-year-old is preparing to lead the club on their return to the Lewis and Harris League, and views it as the first step to a career in football management.

He dreams of one day emulating his dad by prowling the touchline at Rugby Park - or maybe even at Ibrox - but his journey so far has been vastly different to that of his famed footballing kin.

"I tried to get away from the game, not deliberately I suppose, just the way it happened. But it always comes back to us, it's just the way we are I think," he says.

Here, Shiels tells BBC Scotland about how he has dealt with having a famous family, getting stick from the pensioners of Harris, and how Shiels senior intervened to give his players a half-time "rollicking".

A family 'obsessed' with football

Kenny Shiels managed Kilmarnock and Morton before ending his three-year stint at Derry City in 2018

Dad Kenny is a self-proclaimed football obsessive, and so escaping the sport was never an option for his sons. Shiels, like so many others, aspired to play professionally. But while his brother Dean excelled, he eventually had to wrestle with the reality that he would never make it.

"My brother was doing so well, but I couldn't live up to his standard," explains Shiels, who can also count St Mirren manager Oran Kearney as his brother-in-law. "At school, I always thought I'd be a footballer, but it just never worked out. When I was maybe 18 or 19, I realised I wasn't good enough. It was quite difficult, I was kind of lost at what to do."

At 19, he found the hospitality industry, and worked at the Hibernian Supporters Club when his dad moved to Kilmarnock, initially as assistant manager. Living and working in Edinburgh - and then Glasgow - with relatives in the unforgiving Scottish football spotlight was challenging for Shiels, so much so that he felt he had to escape the sport he loved. He moved to Frankfurt, Germany to work in an Irish pub - a necessary change for a "quiet life".

"I didn't like the attention my father and brother were getting- that was a turn off from the game for me. They couldn't go to the pub without someone coming over to them, going to the shop as well. There was a lot of good attention, but some folk can be very cheeky. If you're sitting there and someone's slagging your brother off, it's obviously not very nice. I'm quite a protective guy."

'The locals enjoy a good time'

Harris is located in the Outer Hebrides

After a few years in Germany, Shiels moved back to Northern Ireland but, in an even smaller goldfish bowl, he encountered the same problems. The association, good and bad, with his dad and brother was inescapable, but an opportunity soon presented itself. A job offer from Hotel Hebrides in Tarbert - the main town on Harris - was cautiously accepted and Shiels was on the move again.

It is a decision he is yet to regret, even if some of the islanders are tough customers, particularly the '11 o'clock club'. "Every morning, the old guys come in for their drams," Shiels explains. "They've got 30 minutes until their bus. The bar opens, they all come in and they're expecting their drams straight away. They're all in their 70s or 80s. After we had a couple of friendly defeats, I was getting a lot of stick from them - 'You're rubbish, go back to Ireland'- because they say we need to win the league."

The people, though, are the reason Shiels is enjoying life on the island. He describes them as honest and hard-working, and enjoys the community bond. And, as the man who pulls their pints and pours their drams, he has got to know the locals pretty quickly. "They like to enjoy themselves," he says. "At the end of the night I need to carry people into a car, it's almost a daily occurrence. They enjoy a good time - too much sometimes."

'Dad was going mad for about 10 minutes'

Kenny Shiels, right, and son Dean won the League Cup with Kilmarnock in 2012

Despite the criticism from the locals, Shiels is fully immersed in the challenge of leading Harris FC on their return to the Lewis and Harris League.

His fierce determination to forge his own path is clear, but, make no mistake, his inspiration in management comes from his old man. "I love coaching football, it just comes naturally, it must be in my genes," he says. "From watching my dad all the time, I just do the same as he does. He's given me a lot of knowledge of the game. He doesn't get a lot of credit for what he did at Kilmarnock, but he should. It's just because he's outspoken he put himself under a bit more pressure. He just says it the way it is, that's the character he is."

Indeed it was his forthright opinions that would spell the end of Shiels senior's two-year stint at Rugby Park after the 2012/13 season. Despite delivering a League Cup trophy in 2012, as well as historic wins over Rangers and Celtic, he was dismissed. The club cited results and, perhaps more pertinently, a string of Scottish FA bans as the reasons. So does Shiels junior possess the same sharp tongue, particularly in his dealings with his players? "Not yet," he answers, but his dad certainly still does, his relentless passion for the game unquestioned.

"My father was up when we were playing a friendly," Shiels recalls. "I asked him to take the team for that game, and he said no, but he just took over anyway. He gave us a rollicking at half-time. He asked if he could say a few words - then was going mad for about 10 minutes."

'Dean couldn't handle the lifestyle'

Even if his dressing room rants are not quite at his father's level yet, Shiels' says he has inherited the work rate, and is determined his Harris project could be the start of a bright future in management.

"I want to manage in Scotland one day - start second division or something, hopefully that'll be the next step. I'm a long, long way from that at the minute, but one day down the line it might happen. It's better to start off small, managers need to learn from their own mistakes."

A rookie manager he may be, but he's already encountered some difficulty in the transfer market. "I asked Dean to come on loan for a couple of months, but I don't think he could cut the lifestyle. He likes his Starbucks and McDonalds and all this stuff - you don't get that over here."