If things go to plan over the next week or so, and Greg Docherty knows that sometimes they do not, then he could very well be captaining Charlton Athletic to promotion from League One. If not, at the very least, he is hoping that he will get to lead his team out at Wembley in the playoff final.
The Addicks have been mixing it at the top of the table this season with their superstar-backed and lavishly funded rivals Birmingham City and Wrexham. The Brummies may have disappeared over the horizon, but Charlton travel to Wales today to try and overturn their two-point deficit to The Red Dragons and flip the script on movie star owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny.
For Docherty, the achievement of skippering Charlton to promotion would represent something of a Hollywood ending in itself. He may well now be the on-field leader of one of England’s most famous old clubs, but he has never forgotten his humble roots, or the bumps and bruises along the way that have made him the player and the person that he is.
That is why amid the excitement of what may lie ahead for him in these coming days, he is thinking too of the tumult at the club that gave him his opportunity in the professional game, as Hamilton Accies look to now be travelling on an opposing trajectory to his own.
“I don’t know the ins and outs of it all being down here, obviously, but looking on from afar, it is obviously sad to see everything that is happening at the club,” Docherty said.
“Hamilton will always mean a lot to me. The club was so good for me and gave me invaluable experiences, and that allowed me to go on and have the career that I had. It was a great time to be at the club when I was coming up.
“From a young age I had guys like Darian MacKinnon and Dougie Imrie right on top of me and driving me on to be the best player I could be, and it’s only maybe later on when you look back you can see just how valuable guys like that were in your journey.”
“Hopefully things work out and they can stay in The Championship,” he said.
“If they are relegated to League One though, then it could maybe allow them to get back to doing what they were always renowned for in terms of giving young players their chance to build a career in the professional game.
“It wasn’t just me, you obviously had the other boys that all came through that pathway and went on to have great careers, and it would be brilliant to see Hamilton getting back to that and producing players again that they can then sell on.
“Either way, I just wish the club all the best. I’ll forever be indebted for what they did for me, and I just hope that things work out for them in the next few weeks.”
Docherty’s own personal setback, sadly, came after earning his dream move at the age of just 21. His boyhood club, Rangers, had come calling to prise him away from Hamilton in the winter transfer window, and despite the flux at Ibrox at that time, it was an opportunity he was never going to turn down.
Graeme Murty was in his second spell as interim manager of the club following the departure of Pedro Caixinha, and Docherty was pained to play his part in two heavy defeats to Celtic that rather summed up the shambolic state of that Rangers team.
So, he was sent to Shrewsbury Town for the season, but rather than sulk, Docherty seized the opportunity, scoring 10 goals for the Shrews and sweeping their player of the season awards. He returned to Ibrox primed to challenge for a place in the starting XI, and the initial noises from Gerrard were promising, with his manager calling him ‘a different player and a different person’.
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Alas, he was still not a player Gerrard saw fitting into his plans, or his preferred style of play. The form of Ryan Jack, in particular, as well as Glen Kamara and Steven Davis, meant that come the following January, it was time for Docherty to admit that his dream of establishing himself as a Rangers regular had been dashed after just 19 appearances.
A loan move to Hibs followed, before his permanent departure to Hull City brought to an end what he admits was a difficult time in his career and indeed, in his life. Had the move to Rangers come too soon?
“No, I don’t think so, I wouldn’t say that,” he said.
“It’s obviously a big jump to go from a club like Hamilton, with the greatest of respect, and then make the step up to a club like Rangers, but I felt I was ready for it.
“Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but looking back now, there are probably one or two things that I would have done differently, but there’s no point in looking back and torturing yourself over it.
“I went in and gave it everything every single day, but sometimes you might not fit with a particular manager’s style, and that’s fine. It happens in football. It’s not as though I didn’t give it my all and have regrets that way.
“It was a difficult time though. I was obviously a Glasgow boy, and everyone knew what the club meant to me. And I obviously knew what it was all about from a very early age and what it was to represent Rangers. So, you go in there and you are just so desperate to succeed.
“It didn’t work out, and I was obviously gutted about that. It was a really tough time for me. But life goes on, and I think I’ve shown that setbacks like that don’t have to define you.
“You can still go on and make a decent career for yourself, and I think that is one of the experiences that has really helped me to become not only the player I have, but the person that I have become.”
If there was any hangover lingering from the disappointment of his Rangers exit, Docherty soon blew that away by throwing himself into life at Hull, driving the Tigers on to promotion from League One from the centre of the park.
Docherty will draw on that experience to help him in his attempt to repeat the feat with Charlton, but he also still draws on his Rangers experience to now help young players coming through at the club who may be facing similar hurdles in their fledgling careers.
“Now that I am the captain at Charlton, I can tell the young boys here who are maybe going through a similar thing in terms of not playing or being given much of an opportunity and let them know that everyone goes through it at some stage,” he said.
“It’s all about how you react to it.
“Hull was brilliant for me. I had to get back to playing regular football and I got that there. It’s another brilliant club, a really big club, and I had some brilliant times there. That gave me a platform to play regularly again and at a really high level.
“So, yeah, it was a difficult time at Rangers, I’m not going to lie, and it was hard to accept. But it was made clear that I didn’t really have much chance of playing regularly in the manager’s team, so I had to move on.
Might that include some unfinished business at Rangers? Many fellow fans of the Ibrox club have continued to follow Docherty’s career closely, and he is always flattered when any of them mention on social media that they would like to see him back in the light blue one day.
“That’s nice to hear obviously, and listen, you can never say never,” he said.
“It’s a club that is obviously close to my heart, it’s no secret, and I have nothing but good things to say about it.
“I wouldn’t say I have unfinished business there as such. At the moment, my full focus and concentration is on Charlton and trying to beat Wrexham to give us a chance of automatic promotion.
“I love it here. The manager, Nathan Jones, is great, he is really straight and really honest and I love working with him. Who knows what the future holds, especially in football, but I’m in a great place right now and that is all that I’m concentrating on.
“To be leading the team into such an important few games is really exciting. We’ve put ourselves in a position where we still have a chance of automatic promotion, but even if it is to be the playoffs, then we are confident that we can go all the way.
“I’m really happy here.”
After his disappointing time at Rangers, no one would grudge Docherty that. But there is also one other dream that the midfielder would quite like to fulfil before his career is through – the chance to pull on the dark blue of his country at senior level.
“I would never close the door on that ambition,” he said.
“When I was in The Championship with Hull, there was a fair bit of talk about me getting a call-up, and if we can get into The Championship again and I’m playing regularly then hopefully I can catch the manager’s eye.
“I recognise though that the team has been really settled over the past few years, and the midfield area especially is really strong for us. We have some fantastic players in that area of the park, so I know I’ll have my work cut out to get in there.
“The team have done really well, getting to two tournaments, so I can’t really have too many complaints.
“I would absolutely love it though. It would be a massive honour. But if not, then I’ll just keep supporting the boys from afar as I have done all these years.”
A return to Rangers and a Scotland call-up may well be the Hollywood ending for Docherty, then, but whatever plot twists are to come, he is focused on writing his own story with Charlton for now.
