Pars hope to unleash Dijkhuizen on Killie

Dunfermline hope to give beanpole striker Marinus Dijkhuizen his debut against Kilmarnock.

The Pars are busy completing the paperwork for a six-month loan deal for the 6ft 4in Dutchman.

The 28-year-old arrived at East End Park from Utrecht, where he was bought as a replacement for Michael Mols, now at Rangers.

Dunfermline manager Jimmy Calderwood was impressed with the Dutchman during a week-long trial and sanctioned the temporary signing with an option for the move to become permanent.

"He did well," said Calderwood. "We will have to wait and see if the paperwork goes through with the SFA in time but we are hopeful."

The target man is the latest in a long list of signings made by Calderwood, although the last-but-one, Gary Mason, has yet to feature.

He is still recovering from the ankle knock he picked up in his final training session at Manchester City.

Junior Mendes is also unavailable and Rob Matthaei is still suffering the repercussions of his sending off at Easter Road a fortnight ago, when he was spotted kicking out at Hibernian's Stuart Lovell.

Stewart Petrie is on the way back from long-term injury but is still not ready for consideration and the same applies to John Potter and Stephen Boyle. Jason Dair, however, is able to rejoin the squad.

Kilmarnock's rise up the table has been halted by a series of home defeats but away from Rugby Park they are a different prospect.

Calderwood is only too aware of this. He said: "They have a tremendous away record - they have won six, drawn three and only lost at Celtic Park.

"They are a very dangerous team and although we gave them a good game at their place they ended up winning 2-1 with a goal four minutes from time.

"But we have a good record at home and we are both teams who like to play good football."

Kilmarnock manager Bobby Williamson welcomes back top scorer Andy McLaren from suspension and will wait until the last minute before deciding if influential midfielder Ian Durrant can also return.

The former Rangers man has been sidelined by a knee injury over the last few weeks and Gary Holt, Ally Mitchell and Gus McPherson are also out injured.

Holt, who had been training with Leicester earlier in the week, had a session with his Ayrshire employers today and may be able to return for the Boxing day trip to St Mirren.

It seems the Scotland international will leave Rugby Park sooner or later, with Killie keen to get a fee for him now rather than see him leave for free in the summer.

Williamson said: "We are not taking anything for granted. We know Dunfermline will make it tough for us but hopefully our fans can come back happy again."