Dunfermline manager James McPake has been boosted by the return of Matty Todd for Friday night’s visit of Dundee United.
The Pars boss had hoped to reintroduce the midfielder last week for the win at Morton but decided to give the player an extra week to recover.
Kane Ritchie-Hosler was an unnamed substitute last Friday night as Dunfermline left Greenock with a 2-1 win.
Sam Fisher has recovered from a knock he picked up in that game though Andrew Tod remains sidelined with an ankle injury.
Matty Todd returns
“Matty Todd will come into the squad,” said McPake. “He was touch and go last week.
“He probably just hadn’t done enough in terms of load in training. We opted to top him up, Kane had done a little bit more.
“Kane and Matty are in the squad, other than that, it should be unchanged.”
Dundee United travel to East End Park top of the league and unbeaten, although that record came under threat the last time these sides met in the Scottish Championship.
That day, back in August, it took an injury-time equaliser from Mathew Cudjoe to deny Dunfermline all three points.
McPake has been impressed with the start Jim Goodwin’s side has made – and he knows first-hand how difficult it can be to pick up a team after it has been relegated.
DAFC boss praises United counterpart
“We have a game plan to go out and play against them,” added the Dunfermline manager.
“Look, they’re a good team, they’re 12 unbeaten in the league and they’re top of the league on merit because they’ve been the most consistent team.
“Off the back of coming down – and that’s not easy. We’ve seen clubs come down before and it takes a while to get them going.
“So credit to them, they’ve come down, they’ve got themselves going. Particularly after what would have been, in their eyes, a poor Viaplay Cup good stage.
“But they’ve been very good in the league, very consistent and they’ve got some good players. We know it’s going to be a tough game, we just need to concentrate on ourselves.
“A few teams have taken points off them – Airdrie drew up there, Inverness got a good result at Tannadice at the weekend.”
Last Dunfermline Athletic v Dundee United game has no bearing
As far as Dunfermline’s draw at Tannadice goes, McPake says too much time has passed for that to have any bearing on Friday’s match.
“There is different personnel in both teams, different threats in both teams,” he said.
“So I think they’ll be looking at our last couple of games and, likewise, we’ll be looking at their last couple of games in a way that we can put up a good performance and get a positive result.”
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