Both Montrose and Queen’s Park will need to put recent disappointments behind them when they face each other at Links Park tonight.
In their last two outings the Gable Endies have crashed out of the Scottish Cup to East of Scotland minnows Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale and then lost 3-1 at Clyde.
That result together with being idle at the weekend has seen Montrose slip from second to fifth.
Manager Paul Hegarty said: “We have been disappointing recently but we will look to bounce back in what will be a difficult game.
“Queen’s Park are the best team we have played in the league this season, but we managed to sneak a 1-0 win at Hampden against them.
“They will be out to make up for that and for losing in their semi-final to Peterhead at the weekend.”
Hegarty welcomes on-loan Dundee defender Matty Allan back from a knock and skipper Paul Watson could be back after two months out following a stomach muscle operation.
Goalkeeper Jordan Millar, Andrew Steeves, Ryan McCord, Terry Masson, Ryan Kenneth and Adam McWilliam all miss out.
Queen’s saw a place in the Petrofac Training Cup final taken away from them by Peterhead on Saturday and after four games without a win in the league Gus MacPherson’s Spiders are looking to kickstart their promotion push.
MacPherson said: “We need to shake off any disappointments that we have from Saturday.
“We have not been able to turn good performances in league games into goals and points and hopefully we can do that starting at Montrose.
“They are also looking to get back to winning ways after a couple of disappointments, so it should be a really competitive game.”
Bryan Wharton returns from suspension but veteran Tony Quinn remains out with a hip injury.