LISA Robertson, the Hibernian midfielder, was painting a conservatory when she took a break to discuss today's SSE Scottish Women's Cup final against Motherwell and a career still unfulfilled. The 26-year-old, described as the hardest worker he has encountered by former Hibs head coach Chris Roberts, yearns to win a full Scotland cap and the league title with the Edinburgh club.

Back in 2013, when Robertson spent a solitary season at Glasgow City, she did win a league winners' medal and came agonisingly close to wearing the dark blue jersey. She was on the bench for a friendly in Serbia and thought she was about to go on as a substitute - only for Anna Signeul to instead opt for Lana Clelland, who scored a late equaliser.

In the modern game there are footballers and athletes who play football. Robertson is in the former bracket, breaking up play, performing the thankless tasks, and all with an elan which has made her one of the top midfielders in the country. She is also, again according to Roberts, brutally self-critical and, along with Joelle Murray, the player around who he moulded the current Hibs side.

Should Motherwell be beaten at Firhill this afternoon, Robertson will get her hands on the Scottish Cup for a fifth time. One of these occasions was when Glasgow City won the treble in 2013 and had Robertson stayed at the club she would have won many more honours and perhaps that elusive first senior cap to add to her age group internationals.

These days the player runs her own successful painting and decorating business, but five years ago she was working for someone else and having to make gruelling journeys to Glasgow four times a week – plus wherever the match was on a Sunday. There were also European games, including a last 16 Champions League tie against Arsenal.

“It used to take me between two and three hours to get to training, and it would be another hour-and-a-half on a good night getting back to Dalkeith,” she reports. “I was part of the Institute as well, so I was getting up at 5.15am to go to strength and conditioning, then going to work for 8am and leaving for training at 5.15pm.

“I would get home at 11pm, then shower, eat and get ready for next day. That wasn't healthy.

“Anna [Signeul] told me to stay at Glasgow City and I would have a better chance [of being capped] than I would have at Hibs. She wasn't very understanding of all the travelling and the fact I was paying £120 a week for fuel and not getting anything back in expenses. I didn't expect a pat on the back, but I expected her to understand that I couldn't sustain that for a long time.”

Robertson's return to Hibs in 2014 coincided with no further Scotland call-ups, with the player saying she was astonished not to be chosen for an under-23 training camp when many of her team-mates were. Nor has opportunity knocked under Shelley Kerr, but given the midfielder's qualities, including the “Scottishness” the head coach wants in her players, Robertson must be somewhere on the radar.

Winning a first league title with Hibs was denied by a poor performance against Glasgow City a fortnight ago. It was the Edinburgh club's only defeat of the season and still rankles.

“It's probably worse that we played so well in beating Rangers 7-1 last Sunday, and were absolutely awful when it mattered, myself included,” she says candidly of the City reverse. “How can we beat them in cup competitions six times in a row, but play them nine times in the league over the same period and not win once? Nothing changes in your mentality, you don't prepare differently, you don't set up differently.”

Several of Robertson's former team-mates, both at Hibs and Glasgow City, will be in today's Motherwell side. They include Megan Burns, who won 130 caps for Scotland, and Robertson says there is a mutual respect between the two midfielders, who have similar outlooks and attitudes. Burns, nee Sneddon, delivered mail throughout her Scotland career.

Like Hibs, Motherwell have lost just one game this season – a 1-0 defeat to Rangers in the League Cup in February. They won the SWPL2 title with several games to spare, and have continued in that vein since Donald Jennow replaced Eddie Wolecki Black as manager.

The cards nevertheless seem to be stacked in Hibs' favour. They play at a higher level, and appear to have a better blend of experience and youthful energy - but as she turns her hand back to the painting, Robertson knows nothing can be taken for granted in football.