Raith Rovers miss only banned defender Dougie Hill when they host SPL leaders Celtic at Stark's Park.

The Kirkcaldy men can include on-loan Hearts man David Smith after agreement was reached to extend the winger's stay until the end of the season.

Manager Grant Murray's message to his players was a simple one and he explained: ``We played really well away to the First Division leaders Morton last week.

``We did not deserve to lose 1-0 and all I have asked the players to do is to play as well as they did in that game but to take our chances.

``Our strikers are usually pretty deadly in front of goal so I cannot be too critical of them. Hopefully they can show how good they really are against Celtic.''

Goalkeeper Fraser Forster will return for Celtic after recovering from a neck injury.

Winger James Forrest is back from a hamstring injury but forward Georgios Samaras (hamstring) and left-back Emilio Izaguirre (knee) are out.

New signing Tom Rogic, the 20-year-old midfielder signed on a four-and-a-half-year contract from Central Coast Mariners in Australia, has been granted a work permit but is not yet ready to be considered.

Celtic boss Neil Lennon is confident that his side will be up for the game against the Irn-Bru First Division side after being once bitten by the Buddies.

``I'd like to think so,'' said Lennon.

``We have a really tough game and we will treat it with respect and try to progress in that competition.

``I am not going to dwell on last week, it was disappointing but there was a great reaction on Wednesday so hopefully we are up and running again.

``It is a different challenge and a different competition, so we have to get our mindset right and try to get a foothold in the game pretty quickly.''

The two sides met at Celtic Park in the third-round of the Scottish Communities League Cup in September when striker Gary Hooper grabbed four goals in a 4-1 home win.

Lennon, though, will not read too much into that scoreline as he prepares for the cramped conditions at Stark's Park.

The former Celtic skipper said: ``It was a good game actually, it was pretty open for a long period.

``They equalised but as the game went on we gradually got better and we got a good result and Gary got four goals which was a tremendous effort on his part.

``But this will be a different environment. It is a smaller ground and it will be packed and I'm sure it will be a great atmosphere and I'm pretty sure the Raith fans will be pretty vociferous.

``So we need to be ready for that and match whatever they throw at us.''