Raith Rovers boss Dougie Imrie gives tantalising update on six injured stars
Although veteran winger Dylan Easton is expected to remain out until the New Year with an ankle injury sustained during the 2-1 win at Greenock Morton on October 3, Raith Rovers manager Dougie Imrie has at least disclosed a positive sounding prognosis on his other five crocked stars.
John Robertson (abductor tear), Anton Dowds (ankle), Calum Adamson (calf), Charlie Telfer (hamstring) and Lewis Vaughan (knee) all missed last weekend’s 1-1 William Hill Championship draw at Stenhousemuir and will remain out for this Saturday’s home league encounter versus Inverness Caledonian Thistle, but Stark’s Park gaffer Imrie is tipping “three or four of them” to return in time for Rovers’ league trip to Arbroath on Saturday, October 31.
He told the Fife Free Press: “You won’t see Dylan Easton until the middle of January.
"But out of your list I would hope to have – touch wood – three or four of them back for Arbroath.
"I’m saying they’ll be back, but they’ve not trained a lot so we’ll need to be careful.
"But certainly, going into Hamilton Accies (an away KDM Evolution Trophy round of 32 tie on Tuesday, November 3) and Dunfermline Athletic (a home league fixture on Friday, November 6) we should have a lot more options for the bench.
"Having so many injuries has been difficult, but I think you feel for the players more than anything.
"The way we want to try and play this season, we need players that can come on and off the pitch.
"Certainly at the top end of the pitch, where you're putting so much work and power into a game, you want fresh legs to go on and keep that intensity.
"And unfortunately, and there's no disrespect to anyone, at the moment, in the last two, three, four weeks, we've not been able to do that.
"I'm asking the same players to run through the mill. But we have to find a way to win games.
"We've done that at Morton, we've done it at home against Queen's Park. On Saturday I was frustrated with the first half performance, but the second half was better.
"But when you strip it all back, it's not a bad point. We were the first team to take points off Stenny when they’ve been at home this season.
"They've not lost at home in over 18 months. When you put all that together, it's not a bad point.
"But just in terms of where we've been as a team and a squad, we know we can play much better than we did in the first half.
"But again, you've got to take the conditions into account. The pitch was dry, it was a really hot day.
"The pitch wasn't slick, one ball. There's a lot of elements to the game that you've got to take into account.
"Probably when you take the most out of the game, you relax and you look over it, in hindsight, a draw was probably a fair result.
"Stenhousemuir had certainly a large part of the first half. We probably scored at the right time in the second half, right after half-time, 20 seconds into the game.”