Raith Rovers defender Craig Barr has been forced to endure several months of hell on the sidelines, so he is more eager than most to line up against Inverness this afternoon.
And he admits that a Scottish Cup semi-final appearance at Hampden, the reward for today’s winners, would certainly help make up for a frustrating time since signing for the Stark’s Park club in the summer.
A knee injury picked up in pre-season subsequently required surgery and kept Barr out of competitive action, but the 27-year-old made his long-awaited first team debut for Rovers last weekend’s 2-0 league win at Livingston.
It came as something as a surprise to him, although Barr is determined to seize his chance to shine over the coming weeks and months starting with today’s huge game in the Highlands.
“I have only ever played bounce games at Hampden, never a big occasion,” he noted.
“So it would be massive to get there.
“The boys have done brilliantly to get to where we are.
“When we were beating Rangers in the last round I was sitting on the sidelines and you don’t quite get that feeling they are getting.
“So if I was given the chance to be part of it I would love it.
“Whether it’s a semi-final, a cup game, a league game or even a reserve game I just wanted to get back to playing at a certain level.
“So this would be the icing on the cake.
“I was given my chance last week and I hope I have given the gaffer a tough decision to leave me out now.
“The legs were a little bit stiff to say the least but it was a feeling I had missed because it had been so long.”
Barr signed for Raith from Airdrie in the summer following spells in Sweden and at Livingston, but he admitted a Rovers debut was something he might never be able to savour given his injury woes.
He explained: “I had been out for so long and whether you admit it or not it was getting me down, it was frustrating.
“I was at a new club and all I wanted to do was do well and show people what I could do and what I had to offer.
“And up until half past one last week I still didn’t think I’d get a chance until the gaffer flipped over the team and said he was going to freshen things up.
“Luckily I was one of the changes he made.
“So if I am given the chance to play again this weekend and through to the end of the season it will make me even more determined to do well and make up for the last eight months.
“That’s one of the most difficult things.
“If it had happened at a previous club and I had been there for a year or two it might have been easier to deal with.
“But having come to a new club after I’d been away in Sweden and away from this environment and division for a couple of years I was desperate to do well and continue where I left off.
“I feared I might be here until the end of my contract and not kick a ball, which for anyone is frustrating.
“To come in and have the start I did was nothing short of disastrous and, being injured anywhere, it’s a lonely place.
“But I saw some light at the end of the tunnel at the weekend and I just want to kick on and play as many games as the gaffer will let me.”
Barr worked with Caley boss John Hughes at Livingston and it’s fair to say the centre half has plenty of stories about his former manager.
“Yogi would come in every day and there’s always something he would do,” he continued.
“There was one time in between training when we had the music on and one of the boys was dancing in the middle of the dressing room.
“The next thing the door burst open and we thought we were going to get into trouble for having the music too loud and having a joke and a laugh.
“But Yogi jumped into the middle of the dressing room and then HE started dancing as well!
“He was a good manager and good to play under and he is a nice guy off the pitch as well.
“But there’s no doubt he has got Inverness flying.
“A word Yogi always uses is ‘philosophy’ when it comes to playing football.
“He can take that from team to team and at Livingston we grasped that and enjoyed it.
“So if he has taken that to Inverness and they’re doing the same then it is going to be a really tough game.
“What Yogi won’t do is underestimate us.
“From his time at Livingston he knows the standard and calibre of players.
“He’ll know what’s coming.”
Striker Calum Elliot, who should return from a knee injury by the end of March, will be Raith’s only absentee, with Christian Nade back from suspension.