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The team will be without two key players for Saturday’s trip to Stenhousemuir with both Declan Glass and Fraser Fyvie missing through injury.

The pair have suffered knocks in recent weeks and now face lengthy spells on the sidelines.

The full extent of Fraser’s problem will not be known until he has a scan next Monday, but Declan will be out for at least six weeks, a major blow for manager Paul Hartley:

“He took a bang on his knee against Queen’s Park, and it looks like bone bruising after getting it scanned, so he will be out. How long for will depend on how quickly it settles down. It’s a sore one for us, he looked sharp pre-season and in the early games, and he’s a creative player we will certainly miss.”

Paul now faces an anxious wait until the start of the week to find out how serious Fraser’s injury is:

“We just have to see what the scan says, but it doesn’t look too good at this moment in time. What I can say is we will be missing two of our most important players for the next month and more.

“I do have a good group though, and it’s up to the rest of the guys to really dig in and show the spirit I know they have. I’m going to have to ask these players to play a lot of minutes, it will be demanding, but I have faith in them to meet that challenge.”

The manager is trying to add to his squad, looking in the main at the loan market, but that has proved frustrating to date:

“You’re waiting for the bigger clubs to make decisions, but I’ve looked at some of their squads and they’ve got injury problems too, so they need to have the younger players around to fill the bench or come on late on in games.

“But I’ll keep working hard and identifying targets. They need to be the right players though, there’s no point in bringing anyone here who isn’t ready to play. It’s not easy, and we’re not the only club to find that, but we’ll press on, and we’ll get there.”

Despite the issues, Paul says it’s important not to get too down, he knows a positive attitude is vital in situations like this:

“We’ve been here before, injuries, depleted squads, and we’ve coped, and that’s what we need to do now, to dig results out.

“It will have to be better than it was last week against Queens, that performance came out of the blue and surprised me given how we played in the Premier Sports Cup; it really wasn’t like us.

“Now we need to get the standards back up again. I’ve got quality in the squad, good players who know the league and understand the position we’re in, and we need them all to step up. Win this one and it galvanises everyone.”

Tickets for the match can be purchased through the Stenhousemuir FC website.

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