Raith Rovers manager John McGlynn admits he is relishing the prospect of the first Fife derby of the season today as his side welcome Cowdenbeath to Stark”s Park in the Alba Challenge Cup.
He revealed he will have a new player in his ranks as he prepares to welcome former Raith stalwarts Jimmy Nicholl and Colin Cameron the current Cowdenbeath manager and player/assistant back to the ground.
“It is great to have a derby game as the first proper fixture,” said McGlynn.
“The weather forecast is encouraging and, even though there is a local holiday in Fife, hopefully we can attract the biggest crowd of the day in the competition.
“The pitch, which has had a lot of work done on it during the summer, has come on a lot in the last couple of weeks.
“We had a training session on it on Thursday night and it is in great nick.
“Cowdenbeath have lost a few players over the summer and have injury concerns but it is a derby and it is 11 against 11.
“We may be regarded as favourites but as we know, the form book often goes out the window on these occasions.
“And of course, it will be great to welcome Jimmy Nicholl and Colin Cameron back to Stark’s Park.
“Jimmy was a great manager here and Colin a great player.”
McGlynn will be without Mark Campbell and Dougie Hill for the derby clash but there will be a new addition to Raith in the familiar form of Jamie Mole.
The Hearts striker was on loan at Raith last season and he has returned for another temporary spell.
“We have signed Jamie Mole on loan until January 3, 2011,” added McGlynn. “His addition means I have now filled the last striker vacancy at the club and we have ended our interest in Diarmuid O’Carroll.”
Nicholl returns to the scene of former glories with a greatly weakened Cowdenbeath side.
The short trip to Fife rivals Raith was always going to be difficult but the loss of the bulk of Cowden’s promotion squad through departures and injuries has presented Nicholl with a major headache for his first official match in charge of his new team.
But he remains unruffled despite losing four players to St Mirren, one to today’s opponents and having a lengthening injury list which rules out four key players.
And while he will enjoy returning to where he started his managerial career, he will not be dwelling on past successes.
“It was a good time and a successful time I had there and hopefully I will see people that I have not seen for some time,” he said.
“But what this match means to me is to see us stay in the cup and put in a good performance.
“We will be playing a side that has achieved first division stature under John McGlynn and he has some good players in his squad.
“I saw them in a friendly against Stenhousemuir on Tuesday night and I was certainly impressed.
“We are missing players who started games last season but we have just got to get on with things and this will be a good test for us to see how we are going to cope in division one.”
Defenders Joe Mbu, Dene Droudge and young full-back Dean Brett as well as midfielders Jon Robertson and Danny Mackay are all rated as doubtful.