East Fife player-manager Gary Naysmith has praised his players for taking the Bayview club to the top of the table, but warned them that only the best against Queen’s Park today will keep them there.
Naysmith said: “Going top by beating Stirling Albion last weekend was a bonus . . . However, they have been warned that if they stop doing what they have been doing then they will not be top for very long.
“Last weekend’s performance was decent. We played well in the first half against the wind and restricted them to very few openings.
“When they did have a chance Liam Kelly did well in our goal, and of course Kevin Smith did really well to come on and score the winner.
“He is certainly in my thoughts for starting at Hampden.”
He added: “Queen’s Park are a side that I respect a lot, and we have had two different performances against them. We went to Hampden back in August and played really well in a 2-0 win.
“They came to our place in December and we were rusty after not playing for a couple of weeks. It was probably one of our worst performances of the season and they deserved to win 2-0.
“In saying that, they have the strongest away records in the league, so it was a combination of them being strong and us playing poorly.”
Naysmith added: “I went and watched Queen’s at Berwick in midweek, and I was glad that I did. They have changed their team around in the last couple of games and played a slightly different style than I was expecting.
“Gus MacPherson alters things about in terms of his formation fairly frequently, so I am not sure who they will go with and how they will play, but I am up to date with their players.
“We have the right to be confident about going there, but we need to earn the right to stay at the top of the table.”
Naysmith has a fully fit and suspension-free squad to choose from, but their third-placed opponents miss the injured Tony Quinn, James Baty and Kenny Mackay with Vinny Berry struggling.