The League career of Devonian full-back Scott Hiley consisted of 345 games with Exeter City, in two spells book-ending appearances for four other clubs, including both Southampton and Portsmouth. Scott had joined Manchester City when they were in the Premier League, but hardly played for them. As they slipped down to the third tier in 1998, he joined Premiership Southampton, that summer, on a free transfer.

While at Maine Road, he had broken his ankle in three places and had ruptured a knee tendon, but he was well-known to the Southampton scout, Terry Cooper, who had managed Scott at Exeter and had then taken him to Birmingham.  The gamble paid off. Although Jason Dodd and Franny Benali were still in harness,

Scott proved capable of playing on either flank and will be especially remembered for an invaluable goal-line clearance as the Saints, hovering near the drop-zone, clung on for a vital 1-0 win v West Ham in March 1999.

Out of contention in 1999-2000, he signed for Alan Ball, who was, within days, sacked by Portsmouth. Ball’s successor, Tony Pulis, did not take to Scott, but was soon gone. Whereupon, Scott became a first-team regular and played some of the best football of his career, as recognised by those Pompey fans who voted him Player-of-the-Season in 2001-02.

Back at Exeter, he was in their FA Cup side that memorably drew at Old Trafford in January 2005. After a spell with the up-and-coming Crawley Town, he returned to Devon for a non-league swansong. Since when, his wife and he ran the Eastcote Luxury Guest House in Clyst St Mary, Devon for a while but more recently has returned to Manchester to live and involve himself in the building trade