Raith Rovers ace Paul Hanlon assesses player absentees' impact on 'rollercoaster' season
In a season where Raith Rovers have had injuries to key players Callum Smith, Lewis Vaughan and Richard Chin while coping with Jack Hamilton not yet being 100% fit, at least goalkeeper Josh Rae, defenders Paul Hanlon and Jordan Doherty, midfielders Paul McMullan, Ross Matthews and Scott Brown and striker Jack Hamilton have featured in all the matches so far.
And, when asked if Raith’s rollercoaster William Hill Championship form could be attributed to player unavailability – which has now strecthed to also losing Shaun Byrne, Callum Fordyce and Lewis Vaughan for extended periods – veteran stopper Hanlon, 35, told the Fife Free Press: “Sometimes I think it's quite common in football that you end up missing a couple of players in the same position. For us it’s Vaughany and Chinny at the minute, which kind of leaves us a wee bit short.
"But everyone will get injuries and I think we've got more than enough quality to still be doing better.
"At the end of the day when the boys are getting their chance in the team, it's up to everyone that's in the starting 11 to keep their place and that's when the gaffer gets a headache.
"Jack has not quite been 100% fit, Smithy's probably at that stage where he's just getting his minutes back again.
"Among the attacking players, Dylan Easton and Paul McMullin have probably had the best fitness runs in the squad, they're kind of up to match speed.
"I feel for Jack because he's come in at a time where we're trying to get up the league. He's a big player for us, he's a focal point, but at the same time he's not played a lot of football for the last year.
"You always get that spike where he's come in and done really well and sometimes it's hard to maintain it when you've been out for so long.
"He's probably just trying to find that consistency again of playing every week, but he's going to be a massive player for us, there's no doubt about it.
"When we were on that three-game losing run recently, everyone in the attacking area was not quite at that 100%, whether they were coming back or were injured.
"It's up to everyone else in other areas of the pitch to chip in with goals as well.”
While citing the highly competitive nature of Scotland’s second tier, Hanlon also praised Raith gaffer Barry Robson for remaining upbeat even during the challenging times in this campaign.
He added: "The games are always tight in this league. It's hard to put a run together.
“I think it's fine margins in the majority of games. I don't think there's any game where you could definitely say we've been by far the weaker team.
"In our bad run we probably were not taking our chances or getting the clean sheets we’d been priding ourselves on at the start of the season.
“Every game's just as hard and there's no easy points at all.
"The gaffer's been great to be fair, really good at never letting the spirits drop too low after every game.
"Win, lose or draw, he wants you in on the Monday morning ready to work hard, but not that down way. No-one's coming in drained and feeling sorry for ourselves.
"It's not that attitude at all. The gaffer's big on that. It always kind of rolls into the next week where we're all ready to learn, work hard and get better.”