Ruari Paton relishing 'magnitude' of Rangers showdown as he reveals rise from Hibs heartbreak to Dundee United star

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’.

“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