His roller coaster ride with Saints

“I was eventually loaned out to Queen of the South and I had a great time, but it was difficult that it never worked out for me at St Mirren,” he added.

“But I still played my part that season we won the league, the medals are still in the trophy cabinet — but to not get a chance the following season was hard.

“It was something that I had always wanted to do.

“As a footballer, you always want to see how far you can push yourself. But it wasn’t to be as Gus had other ideas and, by that point, the squad had moved on.

“Maybe Gus felt I wasn’t up to it. The team had moved on by the time I was back and it was probably time for me to go.

“There was talk of me becoming a player/ coach at some point down the line, but that never materialised.”

Hinchcliffe eventually left St Mirren in June 2007, with the side having just secured their safety in their debut top flight season.

Having played next to no part, he knew it was time to move on.

Renfrewshire rivals Greenock Morton came calling, but to this day he says he would never have even considered making the switch down to Inverclyde.

By this point, his Queen of the South boss Ian McCall was now at Partick Thistle, and the rest, as they say, is history.

“I got on really well with Ian at Queens and, by this point, I already had one eye on coaching.

“He gave me that opportunity at Partick and I managed to play a few times as well. From there, Jackie McNamara came in and he took me Dundee United. “We had a great time up there. “Of course, much has been made of the time at Tannadice — but we really viewed it as a great success.

“York City didn’t work out as well as we would have liked, but it is an experience that will serve us well and hopefully I will be back in soon.”