KEVIN TO GET RUN OUT IN RESERVE FIXTURE

Club captain Kevin James will return to action tonight when he takes part in the Reserve League Cup match against East Fife at New Bayview.

James has missed large parts of this season due to injury but manager Derek McInnes is still keen to see the central defender back in action. The Saints manager said this morning “Kevin’s experience is invaluable and I still believe he has a part to play this season. There is a long way to go in this campaign and we will need all our squad at some point in the months ahead.”

Euan McLean, Steven Anderson, Kevin Moon, Steven Doris, Peter MacDonald and Collin Samuel are also lined up to play tonight and they will be joined by younger players.

The manager revealed that a training ground knock kept new defender Graham Gartland out of Saturday’s trip to Firhill. He explained “Graham stretched his medial ligament on Friday and it will keep him out for a couple of weeks. It was the most innocuous of training incidents so it is a bit frustrating.”

The manager expects to hear later today whether Hibs will allow left-back Paul Hanlon to remain at McDiarmid Park for the remainder of the season and he is already looking forward to Saturday’s top of the table clash when Dunfermline Athletic come to Perth.

“I’m really looking forward to the game” said Del. “I was pleased with our performance at Firhill and it was just frustrating that we didn’t carve out more chances. I want more of the same this weekend.”

Steven Milne is expected to be fit for the Pars’ visit and Martin Hardie, who is consulting a specialist about his back problem, is hoping to train later in the week.

Derek also distanced himself from weekend newspaper reports linking him with former Rangers player Maurice Ross, explaining the speculation by revealing that the current Viking Stavanger player had asked for and was given the opportunity to train with Saints over Christmas and New Year period during the winter break in Scandanavia but that was the full extent of any link up.

Menawhile. the Under 17 side made a significant step towards securing their league title when they defeated one of their closest challengers Dunfermline Athletic 3-1 yeterday. Stephen Reynolds with two and Mark Durnan were the scorers.