THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE
Robinson has beaten the odds many times in his career and aims for same at Hampden
FOR Stephen Robinson, football has always been a matter of survival. Like confronting the odds facing Motherwell in tomorrow’s Scottish Cup final and confounding them.
The bookmakers rate the Fir Park side’s chances of beating Celtic at no better than 10/1.
Yet the odds on Robinson making it in the professional game were significantly higher when he was lying flat on his back on a mat at the age of 15.
‘Three operations and about 15 epidurals and I’m still here,’ laughed the Northern Irishman yesterday. ‘Tiger Woods has nothing on me when it comes to back problems.’
Having signed forms for Tottenham Hotspur as a talented youngster, his participation in a school rugby match placed his embryonic career in peril.
‘I had a back operation and the surgeon told me I’d never play football again,’ he recalled.
‘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 too much. You just want to prove people wrong, which I managed to do with a lot of support from surgeons and the family.
‘It’s not something I think about too often — but it’s nice to prove them wrong. 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.’
Brendan Rodgers is proof of that. Celtic’s manager secured the first leg of a potentially historic double Treble when his team defeated Motherwell in the Betfred Cup Final last November.
If his Premiership champions beat the Fir Park side again tomorrow, Rodgers will have completed a feat beyond even Jock Stein and Walter Smith.
Robinson loses no sleep over that prospect — nor does he dwell on the back pain which serves as an occasional reminder of his past.
‘I try to run every day,’ he admitted. ‘I think running back from training is the only thing that keeps me sane in this job.
‘It also lets people beep their horn at me and slag me off when I’m running through Dalziel Park...
‘Some of the comments are good, some are bad, depending on the scarves hanging out of the window.
‘Sometimes when you are a bit stiff trying to get out of bed in the morning you wonder why you bother.
‘But I wouldn’t change it for anything. I didn’t have a glittering career, but I had a good career.’
Defying the surgeon’s advice, Robinson played for Bournemouth, Preston North End and Luton Town.
‘I did what young boys dream about,’ he admitted. ‘I was a professional footballer.
‘I managed to get nearly 500 games in the end. I’m not sure how many good ones, but I got 500 anyway.
‘So, yeah, it’s nice to prove people wrong, it makes it sweeter.’
Criticised for his Motherwell team’s direct, physical style, Robinson offers no apologies for the refusal to bow and scrape at the feet of bigger, better resourced clubs like Celtic.
‘Most of the boys we’ve got have been released by clubs. Big Cedric Kipre was released by Leicester City, Trevor Carson played nonleague football, Chris Cadden’s a young boy. All of a sudden, all three of them are international footballers,’ said Robinson after Cadden was called up for Scotland’s end-of-season friendlies with Peru and Mexico.
‘They know there will be stages where Celtic will have the ball and dominate possession.
‘We will try and put the ball in behind them and into the box.
‘We are very accustomed in how we play, we get the ball into the strikers into their feet or down their sides and we put balls into the box. We won’t change that for Saturday.’
Earlier this season, Rodgers was publicly critical of Motherwell’s approach after attacker Ryan Bowman left Rangers defender Fabio Cardoso battered and bruised.
The two managers settled their differences over a private conversation, yet Robinson is a pragmatist. To keep his job, he has to do the best he can with the resources he has.
If that involves disrupting and upsetting Celtic’s fluidity, so be it.
‘It is sometimes laziness with people’s opinions,’ he said.
‘A lot of the critics haven’t seen us play or, if they have it has only been once or twice.
‘We play a lot better than people give us credit for, but it doesn’t bother me.
‘If people are talking about our physicality then it’s good, because people are now thinking about us when maybe they weren’t before.
‘As a manager you have to get the best out of your squad. I have a very limited budget.
‘If I have players who can receive the ball from the goalkeeper and play all the way through, I will do that. I don’t have that, but I have honest boys with a real physicality, energy and tempo.
‘Boys like Chris Cadden, Craig Tanner, who isn’t fit, and Elliott Frear and the two boys up front — they are all talented, talented boys. They’ll show that.’
Motherwell have already had success against Celtic by pressing and harrying, getting the ball quickly to striker Curtis Main as soon as the opportunity arrives. That won’t change at Hampden.
‘Celtic are fantastic on the eye at times. They suck people in and they break the press and break through you,’ said Robinson.
‘But we are organised, we know what our strengths are.
‘We get the ball into our strikers early because we are very good when we do that.
‘We get the ball down the sides because we are very good when we do that.
‘I think it would be unwise of me to ask the players to do something that is not in their game.
‘It’s about playing our way, playing our style.
‘The reality is that if we go toe-to-toe with Celtic and try to outplay them, Celtic will win.
‘We have to make it as competitive as we can. We have to play in their faces and have to play at a tempo which hopefully affects their style.’
Three decades since Robinson ignored medical advice, the back is now fine. Michael Gove famously said people have had enough of experts — and Motherwell’s manager is one of them.
‘Every team has weaknesses,’ he said quietly. ‘No team is invincible. But that’s all you’re getting...’
I had a back operation and was told I’d never play football again