Released from Hibs at 17, Dublin-born Ruari Paton has made his return to full-time football the hard way.

The forward, capped by the Republic of Ireland at under-16 level, netted twice at Fir Park on Saturday as Queen of the South took a surprise 2-0 lead into the break. Not even Motherwell’s stirring second-half comeback could put a dent in his buoyant mood. 

There was a Connor McGregor swagger as he netted the opener – “footballers don’t need to be like robots” – but the fight from furniture builder back to full-time football was a reminder that not all contests take place in the ring. 

“People see what they see and originally when I was let go a lot of people thought I was nowhere near this and that was their opinion at the time,” he said.  “I was absolutely determined to prove them wrong and prove I was right. I can’t capture the feeling in words but it was an amazing feeling personally to score, if not a great day for the team. 

“I have gone down the way and took my medicine. I had to bust my ass to get here. I had to put everything into it to get here and I had to really believe in myself to get to this point. I am not getting carried away with it but it is a massive season because I have a lot to prove but only to myself. 

“It is time to fly and see how far I can go. 

“I was working last year and getting up at 6.30am. My life done a complete 180. I was building furniture and delivering furniture for a company called Claremount and playing part-time football. The gratitude for being here comes from what I went through last year. Now I am back doing something that I love every day….God bless, it has been amazing. 

“I have been in the real world. I could have gone home, thought I wasn’t good enough and got a job. There is nothing wring with that but I didn’t want my life to be that. I didn’t want to look back and think ‘that’s where you could have went’ and ‘that’s who you could have been’ and days like today would never have happened for me. That is where the overwhelming gratitude comes from me because I was in the real world with real people.” 

Second-half goals from Tony Watt, Ricki Lamie and Kaiyne Woolery put Motherwell within touching distance of the knockout stages of the Premier Sports Cup after two wins out of two. They face Airdrie on Wednesday night.

Woolery has also been round the houses in his career with no less than 11 clubs under his belt. He caught the eye of Graham Alexander, however, when the Well boss was in charge at Salford and Fleetwood. 

Indeed, Woolery was part of Alexander’s last game at Salford when an Covid-ravaged Tranmere got two goals in the last five minutes to get a draw against the League Two side shortly before Alexander took over in Lanarkshire. 

“I came up against his teams when he was at Scunthorpe and then Salford and I was at Swindon and Tranmere I ripped them apart every time,” laughed Woolery. 

“When we talked he said he probably had the best left-back in the league at Salford and I gave him a really hard time, which is one of the reasons he wanted to sign me. 

“I know the manager here had his eye on me for a while and the confidence he has in me means a lot.”