BIG INTERVIEW
How many who claim they have it ever actually finish it?
For Stephen Dobbie, though, it never entered his head that he wouldn’t honour a vow he made to the club who proved to be his salvation.
Overweight and under-motivated, the striker was trading in his gift and opportunity too often for a life outside the white lines, hitting his head off every rung of Scottish football’s ladder on his way down through Rangers, Hibs and St Johnstone to rock bottom with Dumbarton in the old Third Division.
After Queen of the South stepped into his life, however, they slingshotted him from there to the English Premier League inside four-and-a-half years.
Now, with money in the bank and gas still in the tank, he’s honouring his word – not just to play out the last act of his career but to lend it meaning.
The 33-year- old isn’t just back at Palmerston for a last procession. He’s back to push them into the Premiership, something he reckons he should have done before he left for Swansea seven years ago.
And with three promotions to the English top flight in four seasons with three different clubs, he’s backing the experience and expertise he has picked up along the way to help get the job done.
“I had a few options down the road,” Dobbie admitted, “but ever since I left Queens I always said I would come back to repay them.
“I loved it – loved the people, the town, the way they treated you, from the chairman down to the fans.
“The springboard they gave me, the affiliation and the affection I feel is what brought me back. And there was always amongst a group of peers all destined for bigger and better things, but the slide continued and in hindsight Dobbie blames no one but himself.
He admitted: “Going from Hibs to St Johnstone, I can honesty say now I was overweight at the time, enjoying my life too much.
“I was lazy. Not doing the things I should have been, not going to the gym, not preparing right for games, eating unhealthily.
“John McGregor at Rangers told me at the time but I didn’t take it on board. I was still grateful for everything I learned there but the players they were buying at the time, like Tore Andre Flo at £12million, made it impossible.
“Then Bobby Williamson signed me for Hibs after I’d scored f ive in an Under-21 game he was watching.
“He gave me more confidence. It was a good young team with Scott Brown, Derek Riordan, Steven Whittaker, Garry O’Connor, Ian Murray and Tam McManus.
“But Bobby, Gerry