By Jim Davie

SCOTT MUIRHEAD has been keeping his distance from Dundee United striker Noel Hunt this week as the Irishman recovers from a bug that caused him to be ill on the pitch at Kilmarnock last Saturday.

The pair share a house near Dunfermline, but are in opposition at Tannadice today and Muirhead reckons he’ll see more of his mate today than he has all week.

“I’ve been staying with Noel since I came to Dunfermline from Aberdeen in January and he’s been a big help to me, but I’ve been keeping clear of him this week because I didn’t want to catch anything,” said Muirhead.

“He had a wee bug, which might have been down to his cooking, so I’ve been cooking for myself because I don’t trust him!

“However, he’s been fine the last few days and I’m sure he’ll definitely play against us.”

Although glad to see his chum recovered from illness, Muirhead knows the lively little frontman could prove a thorn in the Pars’ flesh today.

“He’s a really good player and he’s an asset to any team,” he added. “He’s a good lad and I’m disappointed he left, to be honest.

“He did really well for us.

“We miss him because we’ve had a lot of injuries with our other strikers like Jim McIntyre and Noel Whelan.

“Big Toddy (Andy Tod) played up front against Rangers and burst his head open. It just seems to be par for the course here.”

Meanwhile, Hunt still has a strong affection for the Pars and their fans and promises there will be none of his trademark acrobatic goal celebrations should he find the net this afternoon.

“I have told the Dunfermline boys that I won’t be doing the somersault if I get a goal,” said the former Shamrock Rovers player.

“I wouldn’t want to rub it in by celebrating like that.

“I was at East End Park for long enough and I know the lads very well.

“There are a lot of good friends of mine there. The fans were also great to me when I was at the club so there is no need to do it.

“I will still have passion in my play, though, and will put everything into my game.

“It is a big game for me especially because I don’t want to be going back down to Dunfermline as a loser.

“We talked about the match the other day and Scott said they would be coming here with a positive attitude and wanting a win to follow up their draw against Rangers.

“I watched them on Sunday and they looked decent. Rangers did not get much of a chance and Dunfermline deserved the 1-1 result.”

If the Pars are to take anything from their trip to Tannadice, where they have managed to win three of their last four, Muirhead knows they will have to show the same fighting qualities that they displayed in Sunday’s game.

“This is a massive game for us after picking up our first point last week against Rangers and we need to build on that result,” he said.

“It’ll be a hard game but if we take what we did last week into this week’s game we a should get a decent result.”

In their three league game so far, Dunfermline have picked up just the solitary point, but the midfielder is hopeful they have turned the corner.

“We did well against Hearts,” he continued. “I thought we were unlucky not to get something from that game but against Falkirk we just didn’t turn up.

“We were really poor but against Rangers we worked really hard and got our reward and that’s what we need to do today.

“Craig Brewster is a good manager, he’s got his team going and they’ve started to play a bit better and pick up some points.”

Muirhead had to go off during the Rangers game, but is fit and raring to go today.

“I tore my hamstring in pre-season and missed a couple of games and then injured it again against Rangers and had to come off, which was disappointing,” he continued.

“It’s been niggling for a little while and I rested it this week and have been getting treatment from the physios. But I trained on Thursday and Friday, so hopefully that’s the end of it.”

The former Dons player is determined not to relinquish his place in the team because he knows that, once the Pars’ injury crisis eases, there will be a raft of players looking for first team places.

“If you look at the squad we’ve got when everyone’s fit we’ve got a really, really good squad,” said Muirhead. “There is competition for every position.

“Having competition is something you prefer, though. It keeps you on your toes and keeps you on top of your game.

“It’ll give the manager headaches, but they’ll be good headaches.”

Manager Jim Leishman still has six long-term injuries to contend with. Scott Thomson, Greg Shields, Freddy Daquin, Scott Morrison, Noel Whelan and Jim McIntyre.

“Greg is having an operation on his knee so they’ll go in and have a look and clean up anything that’s needed,” said the Dunfermline boss.

“Everyone else is fit though they might not all be match fit.

“Eventually, we’ll have a strong pool when everyone is back, it’s just unfortunate that three of our long term injured are strikers.”

Leishman revealed that Greek winger Nikos Galas had left the club after his trial period and that Lithuanian trialist Tadas Papeckys had picked up a knock in training, thus delaying any decision on whether or not to offer the FB Kaunas player terms.

The Fife boss also said that the club was still trying to capture the signature of Motherwell striker Jim Hamilton.