James McPake admits Dunfermline’s emphatic 3-0 victory over Arbroath was bittersweet after watching three of his players go off injured in the second half.
The Pars climbed up to fourth in the Championship with a Josh Edwards strike and double from sub Craig Wighton.
But the victory came at a cost after Kane Ritchie-Hosler, who was stretchered off with a dislocated shoulder, Owen Moffat and Sam Fisher were all forced off.
Former Rangers trainee Rithie-Hosler had only worked his way back into the team having already undergone ankle and knee operations this season.
McPake said: “The disappointment of the night are the injuries.
“Kane has dislocated his shoulder and he’s away to the hospital, Sam has an ankle problem and we’ll assess that.
“It is gutting for Kane, I’ve had serious injuries myself but I’m not sure I’ve had three serious ones in the same season so all we can say is that we’ll give him the best of treatment and look after him.
“He was just getting back in the team and he was a real threat in the game.
“That is the negative of the night.
“But we’re back to winning ways, three points. It was a stuffy game in the first half and we were a bit static at the top end and never asked enough questions of them.
“We were better in the second half and it was a deserved three points. It was a decent performance off the back of the Raith defeat.”
The change in the Arbroath dugout did not have the desired effect as the Angus outfit fell to a sixth straight loss.
The visitors also suffered their own injury set-back at the end of the game when midfielder Michael McKenna was stretchered off.
Interim boss Stuart Malcolm said: “We started well in the first half, we stifled the game and limited them to very little.
“We had a few half chances ourselves but in the second half individual errors absolutely killed us.
“It’s not looking great with Michael, it’s not looking like a short term injury. I don’t know exactly what it is but it’s somewhere around his ankle.”
Conversation