It was a big step for Hector Shand to make, from home-town football in the Highland League to the Southern League, and an even bigger one, geographically, from Inverness to Southampton. In a couple of games at outside-right, at the tail-end of the 1904-05 season, Hector seemed comfortable enough with the former transition but the latter was a problem: failing to acclimatise, he opted to return home. After a foray into the Scottish First Division with Partick, lasting only a few weeks without a game, he ventured south again, for a season, yielding a couple of appearances, at First Division Middlesbrough. Then came a spell of more regular football at Southern League Millwall, with whom he turned up at The Dell in February 1908. After which, he reverted to amateur football in Inverness.

In WW1 he was a dock labourer in the Royal Albert Docks.