Dan’s key now KO woes are all Rover
DANIEL ARMSTRONG spent most of last season playing through the pain barrier of a thigh injury because he feared missing out.
But after overcoming his injury woes during lockdown the Raith winger is set to unlock his potential.
Armstrong netted as Raith marked their return to the Championship with victory over Arbroath and looks set to make a big impact this year.
He said: “Lockdown did me a favour. It gave me the chance to rest my legs, get stronger and work on myself. When I came back to Raith last season I got injured in one of my first games. I tried to ignore it.
“It was too serious to play on with but I kept going, week after week, in pain. I had a bad tear in my thigh, not good when it’s the one you kick with.
“I realise now I shouldn’t have done it but I was so desperate to play. In the end I had to take seven or eight weeks off and thankfully I’m back fit again.”
Armstrong got Raith off to the perfect start when he cut in from the right to curl home a low left-foot strike from 20 yards in 30 minutes.
Reghan Tumilty doubled Rovers lead from 15 yards before Regan Hendry converted a penalty to put the hosts 3-0 up at the break.
Hendry missed a second spot-kick late on after Arbroath defender Tom O’Brien handled to be sent off for a second bookable offence.
Arbroath keeper Derek Gaston produced a superb stop to deny Hendry and admits they need to get the defeat out of their system fast as they host Hearts on Friday.
Gaston said: “We earned a lot of respect last year for the way we played and rightly so.
“But when you lose 3-0 to anyone it makes people question you. People will be thinking maybe we aren’t as good as we were.
“It’s down to us to earn that respect again – and that starts with the Hearts game.”