Ian Murray is expecting at least three of his five missing players to be available for Raith Rovers’ Championship opener against Airdrie this weekend.
Skipper Scott Brown, summer signing Paul Hanlon, top scorer Lewis Vaughan and the dependable Sam Stanton and Euan Murray all sat out the final Premier Sports Cup game against Hamilton Accies.
Stanton was ill but the other four were nursing injuries of varying severity.
All have taken part in some training this week in the build-up to the league curtain-raiser against last season’s bogey team.
However, Murray will make a final assessment on their preparedness on Friday.
“All the players who missed last weekend have all done a bit of training this week,” he told Courier Sport.
“Scott, Paul and Euan, Sam Stanton was ill and he’s fine, and Lewis Vaughan has trained really, really well.
“We’ll check them all on Friday but we’re certainly a bit more positive than we were last week.
“I’ll be surprised if we get them all back in time, especially with the amount of work some of them have done.
“But certainly Sam, Lewis and Euan are looking pretty good.
Murray: ‘Really good news for us’
“Last Saturday did highlight when you take away five players of that calibre then any squad and any team in this league is going to struggle.
“It showed how pivotal they are to us being a decent side.
“So, to get most of them back is really good news for us.”
Vaughan has not made any appearances during pre-season and the League Cup due to a groin issue and his return will certainly boost Raith’s attacking options.
The return of Murray, who sat out the 1-1 draw with Hamilton, would also strengthen Rovers in defence, where full-back Liam Dick was fielded as a centre-half against Accies.
Boss Murray will be disappointed if he is denied the services of Brown and Hanlon, especially given the difficulty of their opening fixture.
But he has dismissed talk of last season’s Airdrie hoodoo – when they lost four and drew one game – having any effect on the new campaign.
“I thought Airdrie did really well last season,” he added. “It’s always hard coming up from that league below, but I think the second season’s always harder.
“They’ve lost a lot of good, experienced players. But they seem to have replaced them with really good young players.
“I’ve watched a couple of their League Cup games and they’ve been really, really good and played really well, particularly against Aberdeen at Pittodrie (a 2-1 defeat).
Last season’s record
“They’ve managed to get through so it’s all positive and they’ll be happy.”
Murray added: “Last season’s record doesn’t really matter now. It will be brought up, of course it will, because that’s football and that’s football people.
“But we go into it looking at it as a clean slate.
“Looking back at last season’s games, I wouldn’t say they outplayed us. But, yes, we found them hard opponents.
“We have to respect the opponent and make sure we do our homework. But we’ve tried to make this week about us.”
