I was in talks to sign for Hearts just a couple of years ago, so I almost missed out on making history at Hibs
SAYS DARREN McGREGOR
PERCHED inside a cubbyhole at Hibernian’s East Mains training base, Darren McGregor is in full confessional mode. ‘Not a lot of people know this, but I went in to see Hearts,’ he reveals. ‘I met Craig Levein and Robbie Neilson. I had just come back from Ibiza, so I was a bit worse for wear. They were both great. It was an open discussion to see what my plans were.’
Sportsmail ascertains that the year in question was 2014 — the summer in which McGregor joined Rangers from St Mirren. Clearly, events moved apace.
Had they not done so, would this dyed-in-the-wool Hibee now be wearing a maroon jersey, having missed out on ending the Leith club’s 114-year Scottish Cup hoodoo?
‘It’s a difficult one,’ he smiles. ‘St Mirren were dragging their feet. But, a week later, the Rangers thing developed and, as soon as you go into Murray Park and Ibrox, your mind is made up. I believe everything happens for a reason.’
This faith in fate has served him well throughout his 31 years. For McGregor to have made the grade at any level of the game owes much to stubbornness and hard work, but there have been moments in his career which felt pre-ordained.
He’s taken more blows than a street fighter: the initial rejection by Cowdenbeath which necessitated a spell in the Juniors, the sustaining of cruciate ligament injuries to each of his knees while at St Mirren, to then being deemed surplus to requirements after just a year at Ibrox — despite winning the club’s Player of the Season award.
An ability to roll with the punches and a steadfast refusal to give in have been invaluable shields against adversity. A Cup winner’s medal can attest to that.
‘Before the second cruciate injury, if you’d said what’s the worst thing apart from a close member of your family dying, I’d have said doing it again,’ said McGregor. ‘Ironically, I did the second one against Hibs. In total, I was injured for almost two years, but I got through it.’
The rough terrain traversed up until that point would have served him well. Some 11 years ago, his reward for helping Cowdenbeath win the Third Division title was a firm hand on his shoulder ushering him towards the exit door.
‘It was another Hibs legend that got rid of me — Mixu (Paatelainen),’ he recalls. ‘We won the league, but I never really featured much.
‘I was pretty rash in those days — I was sent off straight after being suspended. He thought it was best I moved on.
‘There was a guy called Brian McNaughton who was managing Arniston Rangers and he asked me if I fancied it. I remember thinking if I dropped down to what wasn’t even the top tier of Junior football I might never get back up. But I thought: “Sod it — I’m going to play”.’
The financial rewards were negligible. To make ends meet, McGregor became store manager of a clothing shop in Edinburgh.
‘I used to get stick off everyone because I got a Saturday off. That’s unheard of in retail,’ he adds.
‘Thankfully, the owner of Xile, Pat, who is now my father-in-law, understood. I remember Paul Mullen, one of the shop’s directors, came up to me one day and said: “Darren, this football doesn’t really seem to be going anywhere. Do you mind knocking it on the head and working a Saturday as you are the manager?”
‘Thankfully, Pat gave me the leverage to keep playing. He’s a big Hibee, so I would like to think I repaid him.’
It would be some time before the favour was returned, though. Danny Lennon’s appointment at Central Park in 2008 allowed McGregor a return to the senior game and his subsequent switch to St Mirren two years later proved to be the game-changer.
‘At the age of 24, I got a call from Danny asking if I wanted to become a full-time footballer,’ he recalls. ‘There was no decision to be made.’
An 11th-placed finish in his first season in Paisley suggested he had made the right call, but serious injuries sustained exactly one year and 12 days apart were huge tests of his mental and physical resolve. Weaker characters would have cast the towel into the ring.
‘I’ve been very lucky in football,’ he insists. ‘If you had watched me with Cowdenbeath, you would never have picked me out.
‘I feel I’ve been fortunate — and that’s not me downplaying it. I’ve had unfortunate things happen to me, but I’ve also been very lucky. I’ve worked in a clothes shop, I’ve been a labourer and a lifeguard. I know what it’s like out there.’
Having been on the sidelines through injury, professional pride prevented him from gate-crashing Saints’ League Cup-winning party in 2013 but, a year later with an unbroken season under his belt, he would not be short of offers.
Rangers won the fight for his signature, but could not excavate themselves from the Championship. Despite winning the club’s in-house Player of the Year award, McGregor found himself persona non grata the minute Mark Warburton took charge.
‘I still don’t have a bad word to say about them. As a club, they treated me with respect,’ he reflects.
‘It wasn’t to be. A new manager comes in and doesn’t like you. It happens.
‘Warburton likes guys who can pass the ball, so right away that ruled me out.
‘After that, there wouldn’t have been a team I’d have liked to join more than Hibs. It was a perfect match.’
He is, of course, referring to the chance to finally pull on the green jersey of his boyhood heroes. Yet he might equally have been describing the events of Saturday, May 21, 2016 at Hampden Park.
For this son of Leith, the only one in the current squad, imagining the fall-out of victory was an avenue he
I spoke to Neilson and Levein about joining them Rangers only ever treated me with class and respect
Giving fans memories is the best thing a player can do
daren’t let his mind wander down in the build-up.
‘If I’d thought about winning it too much I would have lost my marbles,’ he says.
‘But your mind does wander. I remember being in Cameron House the night before when the significance of it dawned on me.’
Even the most vivid daydream would surely have been no match for the reality. As Liam Henderson prepared to take the decisive corner-kick with the score tied at 2-2 against Rangers, 91 minutes and 25 seconds had elapsed.
‘I never knew how long there was to go as the scoreboard had stopped,’ recalls McGregor.
‘But I knew it was now or never. I sort of swung my foot in case he (David Gray) missed it, although I wouldn’t have been too confident of scoring with my right foot.
‘When he did head it in, I kind of had a delayed reaction. I couldn’t quite believe it. It’s the defining moment of your career.’
Many others soon followed. The following day saw Leith draw to a standstill as the open-top bus inched through the masses.
‘We came down Leith Walk — something I’ve done many times — and every square inch of it was filled with people celebrating, both Hibs fans and local people,’ says McGregor.
‘It just felt so right. Giving fans memories is the best thing you can do as a player. I remember coming round the corner after going down Duke Street and seeing the old motorbike garage on the corner.
‘We stopped at a wee triangle of grass where I used to play for Leith Athletic Under-11s. I was scouted in the street there kicking a ball about with my friends.’
The journey to get back to that point as a Scottish Cup winner was arduous and gruelling, but undeniably life-affirming.
Now with a trophy to defend — starting on Saturday at Tynecastle against Junior side Bonnyrigg Rose — and also a league title to be won, he sees no reason why it should end there.
‘The significance of it took months to even begin to sink in,’ he states. ‘I don’t think it will properly sink in until I’m retired.
‘You could exhaust yourself with words of delight. I’ve been truly blessed to have been in this position.’