Dunfermline: Malachi Fagan-Walcott on captain Kyle Benedictus

The pair were both named in the starting line-up for Saturday's Fife derby defeat at Raith Rovers, with 32-year-old Benedictus making his first appearance since last December after a thigh injury.

Fagan-Walcott, who played his eighth game for Dunfermline in the 2-0 defeat, had yet to feature alongside the club skipper, having joined on loan from Cardiff City in January, but felt his experienced team-mate was a reassuring presence in the backline.

"It was the first time that I had played alongside him. I thought that was great," the 22-year-old explained.

"I found it good. He is different but similar to Hammy (Chris Hamilton) in the sense that they are both loud and commanding. You can feel his presence and feel more safe, especially in the three when he is the one sitting behind. You feel more safe with him behind you. I felt it was good.

Kyle Benedictus played his first game since December on Saturday. (Image: Craig Brown.)

"He makes sure that you are concentrating all the time. When we spoke about it afterwards, we didn’t feel like we were under much pressure, even when the ball was up the pitch, how we got that one in front and one behind to just make it secure back there. It was good and he commanded me around quite a bit."

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Ewan Otoo was also pleased to see Benedictus return to the team, commenting: "Given we are quite a young, relatively inexperienced team, to have someone like that guiding us through games, and always talking to us, it's very important having that leader on the pitch that you can look to in the touch moments.

"He's always looking out for us and trying to pull the team forward with him, so it's absolutely imperative that he's with us for the rest of the season. It's brilliant to have him back."

Although Benedictus couldn't inspire Dunfermline to a clean sheet - they'd kept two in a row prior to losing their last two outings - Fagan-Walcott believes there have been plusses to take.

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League leaders Dundee United are the visitors to KDM Group East End Park tonight, and Fagan-Walcott continued: "I haven’t looked at the stats but I don’t think they (Raith) had many chances.

"They took the two, we are all very disappointed about it but we are trying to take the positives out of it. It was a derby and probably the best footballing game since I’ve been here.

"That was off the back of two clean sheets as well. Airdrie didn’t really deserve it either. We haven’t been awful in any of these games and I don’t think they had many chances. We probably had more chances than them but they got those two goals and it was just devastating for all of us really.

"We strive to get clean sheets as well, that’s our main goal. It hurts when we concede but we can’t dwell on it too much and let it affect the next game."

On his debut, Fagan-Walcott helped Dunfermline keep a shut-out in a scoreless draw at Tannadice in January, and he said there is optimism amongst the camp that they can come away with a good result.

"There is a positive vibe around the dressing room about going into this game," he added.

"Of what I remember, it was tough, but it was a good game up there. I think the boys played well, I think we defended well as a unit and for me personally every other game I have played I have never come up against the team before, so this the first game since I have been here where I know what I’m going into.

"I have a positive feeling about it."