Butcher praisesRaith ashelooksto restorepride

RAITH ROVERS winger Joe Cardle admits he has fallen back in love with football and being scarred by the painful administration experience at Dunfermline.

The 27-year-old tormented Hibs and set up two goals in Saturday’s stunning 3-2 Scottish Cup victory to set up a quarter-final showdown against St Johnstone.

But it was a different story this time last year as Cardle dreaded even going into training with the Pars following months of wages problems.

That all came to a head when administrators were called in and Cardle was one of seven players to be made redundant.

Cardle, however, now has a last-eight cup showdown with Saints to look forward to in March— 12 months on from his departure at East End Park.

He said: “It has been a tough year for me with everything that has gone on but I just wanted to get a club, get playing and back enjoying it again.

“There was a whole year where I wasn’t enjoying going into training and didn’t want to play on a Saturday.

“That has never been me because even as a kid I enjoyed my football. Now I am back enjoying my football again.

“It’s been a great couple of weeks for me with the birth of my daughter Josie-Anne.

“I was really looking forward to the Hibs game, it is a great stadium to come to and a great pitch and these are the games where boys have to turn up. I think there were 11 boys there who did that.”

Cardle revealed he had been the subject of interest fromHibs duringhistimeat Dunfermline.

He added: “I had a couple of sniffs a couple of years ago when I was playing in the SPL. It just never worked out because I had another year on my deal at Dunfermline.

“All I can do is keep my head down, keep playing hard, creating and scoring goals and then I know if I do that, anything can happen.”

Rovers boss Grant Murray has been handed an injury boost after learning that defender Reece Donaldson did not fracture his cheekbone during the memorable win at Hibs.

Rovers feared the worst after the centre-half was stretchered off minutes before half-time following a collision with Hibs captain Liam Craig.

Donaldson, who had been on loan at Peterhead, was taken straight to hospital and was relieved to discover that he had managed to avoid serious injury.

Murray said: “He’s fine, it was a heavy blow at the time and we thought he possibly could have had a small fracture. But he’s come out of it reasonably well and he does not need anything done whatsoever.

“It looked like a heavy clash of heads but there is no fracture. He was out of the hospital not long after. He’ll be available for Saturday’s game against Hamilton.” TERRY BUTCHER has vowed to ensure Hibs restore ‘pride’in the club this weekend against Ross County following the shock of Saturday’s Scottish Cup exit to Raith Rovers.

The Easter Road outfit fell to Championship strugglers Raith Rovers with a 3-2 defeat branded a ‘disgrace’ by skipper Liam Craig, whose side were booed from the field at full-time.

The lacklustre loss means supporters will have to stew for at least another year as they long for an end to the club’s humiliating wait for the trophy stretching all the way back to 1902.

However, with a top-six spot also slipping away from his patchwork team in the Premiership, Butcher has pledged to produce a quick turnaround in fortunes for the visit of County on Saturday.

He said: “There’s nothing we can do about (Saturday) now. But we can certainly affect the next performance and performances thereafter.

“We’ll work hard to make sure we put a team out this weekend and in the following weeks that does Hibs proud and does the supporters proud, because we certainly didn’t do that (on Saturday).

“You’re left scratching your head as to why Raith Rovers won the game very, very well. They looked the top-level side, not us.”