Kevin Rutkiewicz was little more than a cheerleader last year as St Johnstone reached the semi-finals of the League and Scottish Cups, write Graeme Dey and Craig Smith.

Rutkiewicz featured in the first phase CIS victory over East Fife but an ankle injury sustained against Queen of the South a matter of days later ruled him out for the remainder of the season.

Not surprisingly there’s no Saints player keener to piece together another cup run than the former Aberdeen man.

“I’ve now got an opportunity to sample what the other lads did last year and it would be great if things worked out,’’ said Rutkiewicz.

“We’ve already won the Challenge Cup this season and now we want to do ourselves and the club justice in the Scottish Cup.

“It was great seeing the boys doing well last season.

“But once I was driving home from the games it would hit me what I was missing out on.

“It was easy to come in smiling and being brave and at the time you get carried along.

“But back on your own it is harder to deal with.

“Owen Coyle was good enough to involve me in things.

“I was with the team when they went to stay overnight at the Hilton in East Kilbride before meeting Celtic in the Scottish Cup semi-finals.

“And I had the luxury of being able to have a couple of glasses of rose that evening!

“But when the boys went out onto the park for the warm-up it hit me that here was a really big occasion and I wouldn’t play any part in it.’’

Rutkiewicz—who helped Aberdeen reach the League and Scottish Cup Finals in season 1999-2000 but didn’t feature on either big day—is understandably relishing the visit of Raith Rovers in the fourth round tonight.

“This will be my first Scottish Cup game since we fell at the first hurdle against Gretna in 2006,’’ he pointed out. “Hopefully there will be no repeat of that result—but we’ve got a tough tie ahead of us.

“We have a good home record to protect and we can do that. But we’ll need to go out with the right attitude and not have any passengers.

“I only discovered at noon on Saturday that the game was off and, with our having undersoil heating, it came as a real surprise.

“But you only have to look at the damage done to the other fixtures to realise how severe the weather had been overnight.

“The postponement changes nothing though. The task facing us is the same regardless of when we tackle it.’’

The delay has done little to ease Raith’s problems with absenteeism.

Central defenders Mark Campbell and Todd Lumsden, along with loan striker David Goodwillie, are all still unlikely to feature, while long-term absentees Marco Pelosi and Chris Silvestro remain sidelined as they continue to recover from knee surgery.

The experienced Marvin Andrews—who has been loathe to risk a setback with his injured knee—trained with the rest of the squad yesterday. A decision on his participation will be made this morning.

“To go away to a very good first division side would be difficult enough at full strength but the fact that we’re not at full strength is going to make things even more difficult for us,” said Raith boss John McGlynn.

“But it’s still 11 versus 11 and if we can make it very difficult for them, don’t let them get down to their own style of play and try and cause them one or two problems of our own, because we have got a threat up front, then you never know.”

The winners will be away to either Ross County or Cove Rangers in the next round.

“It’s always dangerous to look too far ahead but having avoided a Premier League side and got a team from outwith our division the draw represents an opportunity to progress,’’ said Perth boss Derek McInnes. “But we have to deal with Raith first.’’

Saints have fitness concerns over a mystery player and despite indications from Morton over the weekend that Chris Millar would complete his move to McDiarmid Park yesterday business has yet to be concluded between the clubs.

“We are still waiting word back from Cappielow,’’ said McInnes.

The re-scheduling of the cup tie has prompted the postponement of a closed doors game with Dundee United when Saints had planned to run the rule over a couple of trialists.

“We’ve put back bringing the players concerned to the club because in addition to having to cancel the match with United, the nature of our training this week doesn’t really allow for us to have a look at anyone,’’ revealed the manager.