East Fife may have had the measure of Montrose so far this season, but boss Gary Naysmith has stressed there is no room for complacency ahead of today’s meeting of the teams in Methil.
The Fifers have won all three of the league games against the Gable Endies to date and have scored 10 goals without reply, with two 3-0 victories following on from the 4-0 lesson they dished out early in the campaign.
But after watching his side’s lacklustre performance in midweek when they went down 4-1 at home to Berwick, Naysmith will stress to his players that they simply have to be switched on to make it a clean sweep.
He commented: “We had a chance to open up a gap against Berwick where everybody would say: ‘It’s going to be hard to catch them.’
“If we beat Berwick we’d be 10 points clear of them and they would have a game a hand but even if they won that, seven points is still a big gap to make up.
“But the last thing I said to them was that that would be Berwick’s cup final because if they lose they would be out of the play-off hunt.
“And they played it like a cup final. They played it like a last chance saloon, and it wasn’t good enough from us.
“People may see the Montrose game as one we’re expected to win but they are going to be difficult as well because they are fighting for their lives.
“We’ve done well against them but even though last time we got a goal at the right time they had chances to go in front at half-time and could have equalised.
“So it may have been 3-0 and looked quite easy, but it was far from it.
“I need to guard against complacency.”
Meanwhile, Montrose boss Paul Hegarty reckons his side are still well capable of going on a run that will see them avoid a nail-biting play-off to stay in the SPFL.
Back-to-back defeats have moved the Angus club closer to that unenviable prospect in recent weeks, with Hegarty’s men needing to overhaul an eight-point gap to escape.
Nevertheless, the manager points to the impressive 3-0 win over Arbroath a few weeks ago as proof that they can climb out of danger.
“East Fife have picked up in their dozen or so games and have went from a side at the foot of the table to one challenging for promotion,” he noted.
“We cannot do anything as dramatic as that with only six games to go but there are enough games left for us to go on a run that will make us safe.
“We need to start doing that soon and winning this game would be a great first step.
“We showed against Arbroath that we have the squad that can win games.
“That was a terrific performance but unfortunately not one that we have been able to build on.
“We can, however, go and do the same to East Fife and give ourselves a fighting chance in the last remaining games.
“If I get a performance like the Arbroath one and we secure a win, even if it is a 1-0 success in a scrappy game, it gives us something to build on.”
The Fifers will be without Liam Smith who is on Scotland Under 19 duty, while Julen Etxabeguren Leanizbarrutia is set to remain out through injury.
As for the visitors, Terry Masson is suspended after his sending off last weekend with the injured trio of Leighton McIntosh, Bryan Deasley and Stephen Day remaining out.