Determined Ruari Paton admitted his Hibs’ heartbreak has been a big driver in making sure he got himself another crack at the Premiership.

The gutsy Dubliner was shown the Easter Road door in 2019 and then went from Lowland League and worked his way up the divisions and via a loan spell from Port Vale he now has his chance in the top-flight with Dundee United. Paton will make his United debut against Dundee on Monday and is hoping to make his Tannadice derby in tangerine against Rangers on Sunday. Paton explained: “I went there (Hibs) on my 16th birthday signing a three-year deal.

“They didn’t give me a new contract but I really didn’t want to go back to Ireland kind of empty-handed. I just didn’t want to be another fella, another boy who came over here and had a chance but at the first sign of rejection, it was like, ‘Oh, well, it must not be for me, and it was the manager’s fault’.

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“But it was the best thing that ever happened to me long-term, because I’ve just had the bit between my teeth since then in terms of what I wanted. I didn’t think that I deserved to be let go and I was like, you know what, let’s have a go.

“I had nothing to lose. If I go down the way, what’s there to lose? If I could kind of scale back up the pyramid, I could do it by proving I was good enough to play at the different levels.”

Paton went part-time and worked as a labourer and after delivering office furniture just to keep his dream alive. He admitted: “I was working as a labourer for a couple of months. I was doing night shift, and then I ended up doing office furniture for a year and a bit. I was delivering it and building it in offices.

“I tried to make the best of the situation I got put in. Now that I’m back in an environment like this, I can contrast it to having basically no hope of having a career at the top flight.

“Yeah, it’s a cool story, I guess. Hopefully it’s inspiring for anyone who does get released from a pro academy. It’s not just the end of your football career.”

Port Vale bought the 24-year-old in the summer from Queen’s Park. Paton was frustrated being in and out of the team and that is why he pushed for this switch to United. Vale boss Darren Moore has made it clear that the switch to Scotland is only a short-term measure.

Paton claimed: “I am happy here. At Port Vale there were just too many players. I just want to play the thing that I love. I think people in football forget that their career is very short. You need to make the most of it.

“It’s time for me to show my quality in this league, to do the business this year. I feel these six months could be pivotal for me in terms of making a real imprint in the league. If I could do that, it would really make this year worthwhile for me.”

United will be looking to get back to winning ways against Rangers and Paton knows it is a chance to shine. The new boy stated: “You want to play in big games against big teams. The way it’s going at the minute, we should be confident that we should put up a fight. go in and try to get a result because it’s been going well at the minute.

“You’ve got to look forward to it, surely. You’ve got to be looking forward to a game of that magnitude.”