Dunfermline boss Jim McIntyre has revealed that Paul Burns is a major doubt for the trip to play Rangers at Ibrox on Saturday.
The industrious midfielder, who was signed from Queen of the South in the summer, had to be withdrawn in the second half of last weekend’s draw with Aberdeen and he looks likely to join others such as Craig Easton, Kevin Rutkiewicz and Steven Bell on the sidelines.
McIntyre said: ”Paul Burns is a real doubt for the Rangers game with a knee injury. We had to take him off on Saturday, which was a big blow as he has done ever so well for us.
”So we will definitely miss him if he can’t recover in time.”
Dunfermline’s SPL home hoodoo continued against Aberdeen as they contrived to throw away a two-goal lead at East End Park with just 10 minutes remaining to gift the Dons a point they barely deserved.
McIntyre was damning in his criticism of his players in the immediate aftermath of the game, citing the individual errors which cost the Pars dear.
However, having pored over the DVD of the match with his squad, he is now keen to move on to prepare for the meeting with a ”wounded animal” at Ibrox.
He said: ”For 35 minutes against Aberdeen we were excellent but the goals we gave away were really poor. My thoughts on what happened haven’t changed since Saturday when I said that we had thrown the game away.
”We have gone over the DVD of the match with the players but they are all honest lads and the ones who had made the mistakes knew right away.
”It has happened now so we just have to lick our wounds and get on with it. We have to concentrate on the positives. The lads did an awful lot of good things in the second half with the way they played.
”Losing a goal right on the stroke of half-time was a bit of a killer blow but they showed great character and the right reaction to storm back in the second 45.”
McIntyre admitted that the Pars have another incredibly tough game on Saturday against Rangers, whose lead at the top has been cut to four points.
”Obviously Kilmarnock had a great result against them at the weekend so we will have to beware of the wounded animal, so to speak. Rangers will be desperate to make amends for the defeat.”