Former loan player Armstrong aims to kick off at Raith Rovers.

Daniel Armstrong admits it has been a long and difficult summer for himself, as the 21-year-old struggled to seal a deal due to misguidance by former agents. Armstrong, a former loan player at Dunfermline, now hoping to kick on with League One side Raith Rovers under the guidance of John McGlynn.

The former Hamilton Academical forward was released by Nuno Espirito Santo’s side this summer.

“It didn’t come a shock, to be honest, no. They’ve got all the money in the world now and I was told that they didn’t feel I was ready to play in the English Premier League this season, which was understandable. I have played Under-23’s for a couple of seasons now and we both felt that wasn’t my level anymore and it’d be best if I left and looked for first-team opportunities elsewhere. I had the option to remain for another year but I just didn’t see the benefit in that and I think it was for the best that I moved on.

I’ve always been eager to challenge myself and even if they wanted me to stay at Molineux, I would have asked to leave because I want to be playing senior football, somewhere, so I can prove myself at that level. It was a long summer: I had a lot of teams interested and I was looking to stay down south initially. I left it too late for the Scottish teams because I had problems with agents, honestly, and that has held me back for a few months.

I’ve now changed agent but the deals which were possibilities are gone now – I didn’t play as much as I would have liked on-loan with Dunfermline last year and that motivates me this campaign to go and play as many matches I can to show off what I can really do at first-team level and I am really grateful to Raith Rovers for giving me that platform.”

The Kirkcaldy club announced the arrival of Armstrong last week, with the Rovers’ new number 31 making his debut on Saturday away to East Fife.

“I got the opportunity to go in and train with Raith and I felt that was a good chance to see if the manager liked me or not and it turns out he did, so, that is always great, that someone believes in your ability. Joining a team in League One doesn’t faze me – they are a big club who shouldn’t be in this league and I just hope to contribute to their season and hopefully we can get the club back to where it belongs. I am just happy being able to play football.

My short-term deal will give me 10 matches if selected and i am hoping to be involved in all of them but that means I need to continue working hard, impressing the manager and putting in good performances. We will then sit down and re-evaluate everything come January, but, I am not focusing on that at all right now, I am just looking to play well on Saturday against Stenhousemuir, if selected.

First-half last week, I think we should have put the game to bed, but, we didn’t take that on in the second-half, so, it was disappointing overall. We have taken a lot from last weekend’s match and we will look to improve and learn from our errors for this Saturday’s match.”

Managerless Stenny will prove tough opponents for the Rovers.
“We spoke about things after the game on Saturday, we spoke further on Monday and we have watched the game back, too; everyone has had their say, we know where we went wrong, and, we are all determined to turn it around on Saturday. Hopefully we can get the 3 points to try keep in touch with Arbroath at the top of the table. We can talk all we want, but, ultimately, it comes down to what we do on the pitch.

We will treat every team with respect, but, it is about us and we need to make sure we give 100% for the full 90 minutes. It doesn’t matter what a team’s situation is, every player steps out on to that park to try win the match, so, we need to make sure we are the one’s coming away with 3 points from Ochilview this weekend.

I just want to show the fans what I can do; I like to excite the fans, take players on, create chances. With a run of games, I feel I can prove why I have joined Raith and what ability I really do have.”