After almost a quarter of a century of appearances over seven years, last summer Kyle Benedictus left Stark’s Park.
That spell included captaining Raith Rovers to League One title and Challenge Cup wins.
He then swapped the armband for that of Dunfermline before last season leading the Pars to a dominant title win in the third tier.
Benedictus has played in seven Fife derbies versus his current club – winning two, losing two and drawing the other three.
‘I’m expecting some boos’
This Saturday Benedictus will pull on the black and white stripes before getting his first taste of the fixture from the other side.
“I’m not sure what type of reception I’ll get. I’m expecting some boos!” he half-jokes. “It’s part and parcel of football, it’s to be expected.
“I’ll concentrate on my own game and concentrate on my team-mates and hopefully we come out on top at the end.
“It’s a great game to start off with, you probably couldn’t ask for a better game to go into a season.
“First game, it’ll be on TV as well. There will be a lot of eyes watching and we know how much it means to both sets of fans.
“Both teams will be going for the win and I’m sure it’ll be a cracking game.”
Challenging warm-up
After a testing pre-season that involved friendlies versus two Premiership sides and second-tier German opposition, Benedictus sees this weekend’s Viaplay Cup tie as a barometer.
They earned respectable draws in two of those and the Pars captain is hoping they can take the momentum from last season into the upcoming league campaign.
“Last season there was a winning mentality around the squad all season and we’ve taken that into this season,” said Benedictus.
“We want to do the same as last year – it’s going to be a harder league, there’s no doubt about it.
“But if we can go in with the same team spirit – the boys have trained the same as they did last year, nothing’s changed – the team spirit is still there, let’s go and see what we can do.
“Come Saturday, it’ll give us an indication of the level we need to be at.
“We lost one league game all season last year – if that doesn’t give us confidence, I don’t know what will.
“I’m sure the boys will be buzzing for Saturday.”
