PORTENTS and omens are a dubious currency in football, but it is worth pointing out that Allan Johnston has already got the better of Ally McCoist once in a cup competition at Ibrox and gone on to lift the trophy in question.

The Queen of the South team which Johnston took to his old stomping ground in Govan in a Challenge Cup quarter-final tie in September 2012 contained two future Rangers players, Lee Robinson and Nicky Clark, and few defeats in the tenure of McCoist have been more troubling.

The Ibrox side were leading 2-1 going into the 90th minute when Queens centre-half Mark Durnan equalised from a suspiciously-offside position following a throw-in which the Rangers boss felt should have been theirs. Ryan McGuffie gleefully knocked in the penalty as the Dumfries side ultimately won 4-3 on spot kicks, leaving Johnston - also an unused substitute on the night - claiming the feeling was even better than the sensation of scoring a hat-trick on the same ground in the colours of Hearts in 1996.

The Doonhamers went on to pick up the trophy after an equally riotous Challenge Cup final against Partick Thistle.

"It was a great night," recalled Johnston, who takes his Kilmarnock side back to Govan on Scottish Cup fourth-round duty today. "We went into the game with a game plan, where we weren't going to sit off, we were going to try to attack. It was a very good team performance and we stuck with it right to the very end - I think we got the equaliser in the 90th minute so it was great persistence. We went on to win it so hopefully that is an omen."

Despite his two famous red-letter days at Ibrox, the ground was less kind to Johnston when it was his home venue. Johnston was recruited from Sunderland on a Bosman in the summer 2000 at the height Sir David Murray's big-spending era, but learned quickly that manager Dick Advocaat generally had him pencilled in as a Champions League specialist. A broken toe in a rare league appearance sidelined him for three months and after just one season he was being shipped to Middlesbrough. While Rangers, even in the Championship, have a budget which dwarves that which Johnston can lay his hands on at Kilmarnock, these are changed days indeed.

"It was frustrating," said Johnston. "I played the Champions League games for some reason, but never played the League games most of the time. So I guess I just played the big ones. I eventually played against Hibs after one of the Champions League games, broke my toe and was out for three months. And that was it basically.

"It was frightening the squad we had at that time," he added. "You had guys like [Giovanni] Van Bronckhorst, [Jorg] Albertz, Tugay, [Barry] Ferguson, [Neil] McCann, [Andrei] Kanchelskis, Ronald de Boer, and that was just the midfield. Myself and Paul Ritchie came in, but you would come in for a game then disappear for a few games. It was difficult at a club of that size with the quality of squad we had.

"Kenny Miller was there as well, but he was just a young lad, and it took him a while to settle. You would never have envisaged then what has transpired, but they are still a massive club. You can see that with the amount of money, budget-wise, that they have got and the expectations of the fans."

Kilmarnock currently possess the rare distinction of having beaten Rangers the last two times they played them, but you have to go back to 1938 for their last victory in a Scottish Cup match. As if it were needed, further intrigue is added to this match by the misadventures of three-time Killie old boy Kris Boyd, whose surprising struggles at Ibrox this year were summed up by the fact he was dropped for last week's match at Hearts.

After a prolific 2013-14 campaign in Ayrshire, Boyd had an offer to stay at Kilmarnock, with some coaching work thrown in, but decided to return to Ibrox instead. "I am a bit surprised because obviously I played with him last season and I know just how good a finisher he is and how good a player he is so I am sure he will come good," said Kille striker Rory McKenzie, pictured. "I could not tell you why it has not happened for him.

"But I really loved played alongside Boydy - your standards had to be so high when you were putting a cross into the box. The stares yeah, there were a few stares when it wasn't right. But you know when Boydy is in the box that you have to pick him out. He makes you a better player."

Stewart Fisher