STEPHEN Robinson doesn’t just talk about upsetting the odds. His whole career in football is a testament to it. A teenager from Lisburn whose talents would take him all the way to a YTS at Tottenham, a freak accident in a school rugby match left him hospitalised and in need of a serious back operation.

Doctors told him there and then that he would never play football professionally. Thankfully, 500 first-team appearances for clubs such as Bournemouth, Preston North End and Luton Town prove he clearly thought differently.

“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,” said Robinson. “I had a back operation at 15 and the surgeon told me I’d never play football again. I actually did it playing rugby at school. It was an innocuous challenge but it left me in a lot of pain.

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“I’d signed for Spurs at the time and it was a pretty devastating thing to hear,” he added. “But at 15 you don’t think about 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. I managed to get nearly 500 games in the end. I’m not sure how many good ones, but I got 500 anyway. Tiger Woods has nothing on me when it comes to back problems. I wish I had his golf swing now though.”

When you are Motherwell manager and you have taken the club to two cup finals then you have already succeeded when it comes to upsetting the odds. But you only have to be in Robinson’s company for a minute to know that he isn’t satisfied just with that.

This is a man who runs back from training at Dalziel Park each day, enduring the shouts of onlookers, whether it is praise from Motherwell supporters or catcalls from rival fans. “I think running back from training is the only thing that keeps me sane in this job,” he says. “It also lets people beep their horn at me and slag me off when I’m running through Dalziel Park!”

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The same defiant streak runs through his squad, including new Scotland international Chris Cadden, a man who he feels can go on to play many matches at Hampden. “Most of the boys we have got have been released by clubs,” says Robinson. “Big Cedric Kipre was released by Leicester, Trevor Carson played non-league football, Chris Cadden is just a young boy. All of a sudden all three of them are international footballers. It does make it ever so sweet when you prove people wrong.”

Serious about his coaching from a young age, one of the men who helped him along his way, whilst he and David Healy were part of the Northern Irish youth set up, was a certain Brendan Rodgers. Then in the hot-seat at Anfield, Rodgers obliged the pair with a Liverpool lock-in. “Brendan was really good,” said Robinson. “He kicked everyone out and shut the doors and gave us three or four hours. We tried to pick his brains.You saw the level of players he was working with and he had their total respect.”

If the 43-year-old has one wish when it comes to Saturday’s match it is that his players lift the trophy. If he has two, it is that the match isn’t settled by, or unduly influenced by, the blasts of referee Kevin Clancy’s whistle. The Fir Park side feel ever so slightly aggrieved by the way the cards, literally at times, have fallen against his team on three previous occasions this season – the twin dismissals of key defender Cedric Kipre – one of them whilst trailing 1-0 in the BetFred Cup final – and the last gasp, disputed penalty award for a foul on Callum McGregor in a 1-1 league draw at Fir Park.

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“Wouldn’t it be nice if we won this time?” said Robinson. “But we want to do it without controversy. I don’t think referees set out to be the subject of newspaper headlines, so hopefully it will be a game where football dominates.

“You could say that [we are due something] but I think you make your own luck,” he added. “We might have been aggrieved but at the end of the day we were losing 1-0 [in the BetFred Cup final] when the decision was made. So we weren’t winning and it didn’t cost us the game but it did ruin the game more than anything. We know we have to raise things a little five percent. We have drawn with them twice and we know each individual has to raise it a little if we want to come away with a victory.”

If this Motherwell side play a Spartan brand of football with three imposing central defenders who aren’t afraid to get the ball forward, and support runners with bags of pace and strong running, Robinson is unapologetic. It isn’t his job to make life easy for Celtic; on the contrary in fact. A lot of the critics haven’t seen us play or if they have it has only been once or twice,” said Robinson. “We play a lot better football than people give us credit for but it doesn’t bother me. The reality is that if we go toe to toe with Celtic and try to outplay them Celtic will win. But every team has weaknesses, no team is invincible. That’s all you’re getting....”