Stephen Robinson has made a career out of proving people wrong. Now the Motherwell manager is plotting the ultimate turn up for the books in this weekend’s William Hill Scottish Cup final against Celtic.

The Steelmen face the Scottish Champions in a showpiece Hampden occasion for the second time this season as they strive to thwart Celtic’s bid for an historic double treble.

As a teenager, Robinson feared his promising football career would be cut short after picking up a serious back injury playing rugby. The fact he went on to play almost 500 games with a variety of clubs and earn seven international caps for Northern Ireland proved that every cloud can have a silver lining. Robinson is hoping that will be the case this weekend as his Motherwell underdogs aim to be the top dogs and land the Cup for the first time since 1991.

He said: “When you’ve played for lower teams or smaller teams who don’t have the finances or the crowds you soon learn that you have to fight your way to the top.

“People told me I would never play football at the age of 15. I had a back operation at that age and the surgeon told me I’d never play football again.

“I’d signed for Spurs at the time and it was a pretty devastating thing to hear. But at 15 you don’t think about it too much. You just want to prove people wrong, which I managed to do with a lot of support from surgeons and the family.

“Back then it was doubtful I’d play at any level but the way I looked at it was, ‘I know better and I’ll prove it’.

“I think a lot of people from Northern Ireland have that attitude to try to succeed. Three operations and about 15 epidurals and I’m still here. Tiger Woods has nothing on me when it comes to back problems. I wish I had his golf swing now though.

“Most of the boys we have got have been released by clubs. Big Cedric Kipre was released by Leicester, Trevor Carson played non-league football, Chris Cadden was a young boy. All of a sudden all three of them are international footballers. So it does make it ever so sweet when you prove people wrong.

“I wouldn’t change my career for anything. I didn’t have a glittering career but I had a good one. I did what young boys dream about. I was a professional footballer. I did it until I was 33 and now I’m a manager. Playing is much better, I can assure you, but for anyone setting out at 11 or 12, it’s a dream come true.”

For the aforementioned Cadden, another dream has come true as he was added to the Scotland squad for the forthcoming trip to Peru and Mexico after a mounting number of call-offs.

Ahead of the biggest game of his blossoming career tomorrow, the 21-year-old will have an added spring in his step and Robinson reckons the spin offs of this international recognition will benefit both club and country.

He added: “He’s like a young boy on Christmas Day going in to the Final.

“Can he get a boost from the Scotland call up? Absolutely. Trevor Carson’s been called up as well. Motherwell don’t get many players called up for international squad, so the club itself and for the individuals it’s probably the highest honour in the game.

“I remember Laurie Sanchez took a so-called scratch side away for one of these summer tournaments and it turned out to be the start of something special for Northern Ireland.

“It was the same with Michael O’Neill when he went to South America at the beginning. It wasn’t all the main players but some of them broke through.

“They’ve got the shirt and it’s real chance for Chris to stake a claim when others are not there.”