Lee Ashcroft was embroiled in a bitter relegation battle with Dundee United last season – but the Dunfermline defender hopes he is now poised to enjoy a promotion struggle with tomorrow’s cup opponents.
Ashcroft was at Kilmarnock last term when the Rugby Park outfit were vying with United to avoid dropping out of the Premiership.
The Ayrshire men prevailed but in the end Ashcroft followed the Tangerines into the Championship after being released by Killie and opting to join League One champions Dunfermline.
He said: “I’d like to think I’ll be involved in a better battle with Dundee United this season. Hopefully we’ll be fighting at the top, rather than the bottom.
“It wasn’t a good season for either us at Kilmarnock or for Dundee United last season. We were lucky enough to stay up and obviously they got relegated.
“They’ll be a strong team, they’ll be looking to get straight back up and to challenge for that league.
“But we will as well, because I feel that if we keep doing what we’re doing – aside from the result the other night – we could have a good season this year.
“Playing against them before the league starts, it will let us know where we are, because they’re going to be one of the favourites and one of the strongest teams in the league.”
Ashcroft believes the trip to face United, who are a point above the Pars in the Group C table, is the perfect match to try to recover after suffering a heavy defeat to Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
He added: “When we came off that park the night before we felt like we hadn’t played too bad.
“I think we were a bit unfortunate at times. It’s a learning thing. If we do go goals down we don’t want to go and get pumped. On paper, it looks like we’ve been battered but I don’t think it was like that.
“But we’ve got the perfect opportunity to bounce back on Sunday.”
The Betfred Cup’s top scorer Andy Geggan is suspended.
