'I dreamt of playing for Hibs while I was at Hearts' - Lewis Vaughan on why his Raith Rovers testimonial means so much

Popular striker who has endured horrendous injury luck set for special night at Stark’s Park

Lewis Vaughan’s career story has been well documented, but there is one thing he has managed to keep on the down-low until now. There was a time in his career when the lifelong Hibs fan had to wear a Hearts strip in the morning before discarding it for the colours of his favourite capital club in the afternoon.

The 28-year-old Raith Rovers striker is among the most highly-regarded players in the Scottish Championship, not only for his undoubted talent, but for his miraculous comeback from four ACL injuries. He has been with the Kirkcaldy club since the age of 15 having previously been on the books of Hearts as a youngster, where he kept his leanings towards the green half of Edinburgh hidden.

Vaughan, who will face his boyhood heroes in his Raith testimonial next week, said: "I'm a Hibs fan. All my family and friends are Hibs fans as well. Some of them are still season ticket holders. As a kid I was a season ticket holder.

Raith Rovers striker Lewis Vaughan will face Hibs in his testimonial next week. (Photo by Ross Parker / SNS Group)

"I used to play for Hearts on a Saturday morning then me and my mate would go to Easter Road on a Saturday afternoon to watch Hibs. I had to keep that quiet! It was definitely weird wearing a Hearts strip. I took a few pelters for that.

"It was a dream to play for Hibs growing up, especially at Easter Road. That's probably not going to happen now so the next best thing is to play against them in a testimonial. It was the one team I wanted to play against so it's brilliant that they've agreed to it."

Hibs have informed Raith that they will be treating the match as a proper friendly as Nick Montgomery looks to keep his players ticking over during the international break. It is just rewards for Vaughan who has been to hell and back after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament on four seperate occasions, twice on each knee.

Years of his career have been lost to painstaking surgeries and rehabilition programmes, which, many would argue, prevented him from earning a big move. Both his current Raith manager, Ian Murray, and predecessor, John McGlynn, reckon he would have been capped for Scotland by now were it not for those injury setbacks.

Vaughan will come up against Hibs on Wednesday night.

"The hardest part for me is people talking and saying if it wasn't for the injuries you'd have gone on to a bigger club and played for the likes of Hibs," he said. "It's one of the hardest things to try and digest, what I could have done. But that's life and that's football sometimes. It doesn't always work out how you expected it to."

Vaughan now feels "fit and strong" wiith his 15 goals and seven assists making a major contribution towards Raith's title push as they sit one point behind leaders Dundee United with eight league games remaining. Promotion to the Premiership would cap off what is already a remarkable story of triumph over adversity for the popular forward.

"That's the only thing I really feel I'm missing is going to the next level and play in the Premiership," Vaughan said. "Whether we win the league or do it through the play-offs, I'd give anything to go up with this club. I didn't think I was ever going to play for Raith again never mind play in the Premiership so to play a massive part in getting the club promoted would be a dream come true."

Every Hibs fans has a story to tell from the 2016 Scottish Cup final win over Rangers which ended the club's 114-year wait for the trophy but Vaughan would prefer to keep his secret as it is one filled with regrets.

"I don't want to tell you mine! All my mates had tickets and I didn't have one, but I managed to get a complimentary one from Callum Booth. I think he was on loan at the time. One of my mates who had a season ticket didn't manage to get a ticket so I actually gave him my ticket, and I didn't go to the game. I ended up watching the game in the pub, and it's probably the biggest regret I've ever had. I don't know what I was thinking. I probably thought we were going to get hammered anyway. I'll never live it down, but my mate had a good day. I don't like to tell that story. When people ask me about the game, I usually just say, 'aye, I was there'. I was at the parade down at Leith Links the followiing day, which was chaos, and it kind of made up for missing the game."

Vaughan was, however, inside Hampden Park aged 11 for the 5-1 win over Kilmarnock in the CIS Cup final of 2007. "It was brilliant,” he recalled. “I was at many other cup finals that weren’t so good so that’s the one that sticks in the mind.”

Lewis Vaughan's Raith Rovers testimonial against Hibs takes place on Wednesday, March 20, at Stark's Park, Kirkcaldy. Kick-off is 7.45pm. Tickets are available from £5 and can he purchased HERE.