Ross County player says scoring goal against Dunfermline Athletic shows he is getting back to his best following being out injured for 11 months
SCOTT Fraser says scoring his first goal for Ross County is another step forward in his comeback from an injury which kept him out of action for almost a year.
The attacking midfielder scored the opener in a 3-2 victory over Dunfermline Athletic in what was the Staggies’ second league win of the campaign.
It was a huge moment for Fraser as he continued his comeback from injury after undergoing hernia surgery during his time at Dundee last season as he was out for 11 months.
However, it appears the 30-year-old has put his injury troubles behind him having played in the club’s last seven matches.
Fraser, who signed for Ross County last month on a deal until the end of the season, says his time out injured was the hardest part of his career both mentally and physically.
But he feels he is heading towards getting back to his best and aims for more chances in front of goal with Ross County this season.
He said: “I am getting there, I was out for 11 months with injury, that is my sixth start in-a-row.
“I am treating the league games so far as a pre-season and that is tough as I am playing catch up. But I am getting stronger and once I have that sharpness, I will be flying.”
Speaking about being out injured for 11 months, Fraser said: “It was horrible, it was definitely the hardest part of my career and personal life.
“My young family suffered from it as well as me, it wasn’t just the football side of it, it was more the life that was affected.
“But that is six starts back to back and it has been a mini pre-season.
“I am up against boys that have had a pre-season and it is playing catch-up. But I will work hard to catch up quick.”
Fraser scored after just two minutes with Jordan White scoring a minute later to put Ross County 2-0 up after three minutes. Dunfermline did level the match, but Ronan Hale scored the winner for County to give them three points.
Fraser says the club have been working on taking chances in front of goal early on in matches and believes that it is paying off.
“We try to do that in every game, it is something that we speak about trying to get a fast start. But that is a lot easier said than done. Recently, we have started games really well and you look at matches against Partick, Morton and Raith Rovers.
“I was delighted to see it go in and a minute later with Jordan’s goal as well.”
Speaking about coming back from losing a two-goal advantage, he said: “We need to realise it is one moment that they have had, Jordan was off the pitch injured at the time and perhaps were unorganised and disjointed and they took advantage of it.
“I think the character that we showed in the game, especially when they equalised, it would be easy to feel sorry for ourselves.
“But we never did, we pushed to get the third goal and they didn’t get the momentum to pin us back.
“For us to get the winner was a really good thing. We have talked about not letting the game take over and stick to what we are doing. We know that we have good players, it is about getting the confidence flowing and when it does, you’ve seen how good we can be.
“I want to get into the goalscoring positions and hopefully that is the first of many. Part of my game while I played in England was striving to do that and it is something that I want to do here.”