Dunfermline: Kane Ritchie-Hosler's fitness hopes revealed

And the talented 21-year-old is keeping his fingers crossed that his Pars pals can keep themselves as injury-free as they can to allow them to have a successful season.

Former Manchester City youth Ritchie-Hosler curled home a fine effort from the edge of the box to score Dunfermline's second goal in their 3-0 win at The Spartans on Saturday, helping ensure a winning start to their Premier Sports Cup, Group E fixtures.

That effort means he has already netted half of his goal tally from last term, when he scored twice in a 3-1 win over eventual Championship title winners Dundee United in March, which was hit significantly by injury.

Ritchie-Hosler was restricted to just 15 appearances across all competitions after undergoing operations on three separate injuries.

After suffering an ankle injury last pre-season, he then suffered a knee issue in his first competitive outing of the campaign, before sustaining a dislocated shoulder.

"Definitely. It is a good way to start, getting a goal for me," he replied when asked if he's aiming to make up for lost time this season.

"It builds my confidence and a full season would be great.

"I hope there are no more injuries. I just want to be playing out there with the boys, getting as many minutes as I can and contributing, like I did today.

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Kane Ritchie-Hosler made just 15 appearances last season due to injury. (Image: Craig Brown.)

"Last season was tough with injuries and it was up and down. Hopefully we can just kick on and have a good year this year and injury free.

"Obviously Matty (Todd) has picked up one, which is gutting for us because he is such a big player. Hopefully he is back soon and we can really kick on."

Of the 15 players that either started, or came off the bench, at Ainslie Park, only three - Deniz Mehmet, Joe Chalmers and David Wotherspoon - are in their thirties.

The average age of those involved at the weekend was just 24, whilst Lewis McCann, at 23, was the oldest of the trio who found the net.

Taylor Sutherland, at 18, was the youngest, and Ritchie-Hosler noted: "It was a brilliant goal for Taylor.

"He has been working really hard, he deserves it. He has come on and put in another good performance like he has done in pre-season. I’m very happy for him.

"The boys that are coming through, the boys who came on today, they did well. You could see when they came on against Dundee (in last Wednesday's final pre-season friendly) they were brilliant as well in the second half. You can see the talent coming through the academy is good."

On his goal, and Dunfermline's win, he added: "Yes I am not going to lie, I think I caught it sweet.

"It was actually a bad lay off to be honest from our corner routine but it is just great that it went in. I tried it in the first half playing off the left, that’s something that I’d like to do more to be honest.

"It is a good position for me to pick up and thankfully the next attempt it went in.

"It's massive for confidence. It was our first competitive game, we had the pre-season games where you could see good performances like against St Mirren, that there were promising signs, and we just need to build on that."