East Fife will head into a potentially pivotal home game in terms of their play-off hopes in fine fettle, according to boss Gary Naysmith.
The Fifers could move to within just one point of fourth-placed Annan Athletic if they can secure three points over them at Bayview this afternoon, and they would still have the luxury of a game in hand on the Galabank side.
And Naysmith reckons his players have every right to be in high spirits after their 2-1 win over East Stirling in midweek extended their unbeaten run to six games.
“This Annan game is a big, big game for us now,” he noted.
“We’re four points behind with a game in hand and if we can do the business against Annan then everything is back in our favour to get into fourth spot.
“If someone had said to me after we were beaten 5-1 by Arbroath that we would go on a run of three wins and three draws, I’m an optimist but I would have been hard pushed to believe that.
“The lads have got a bit about them and they’ve shown that in recent weeks.
“In two or three of these games in this run we’ve been behind and we’ve came back so you need to have a bit about you to do that.
“They are a pleasure to train and coach, and I just get frustrated with them sometimes when they don’t deliver.”
The Fifers, who were in talks yesterday to secure the services of former Scotland striker Derek Riordan once more as a trialist for today’s game, earned their third win in four matches on Tuesday night and Naysmith is keen to keep the run going.
“It was all about getting the three points but it shows you how funny a game football is,” he added.
“We played really well against Clyde on Saturday and only drew, and then against East Stirling I would put that performance up there perhaps with when we were beaten 3-0 by Queen’s Park.
“But it’s a good habit to win when you are not playing well.
“It’s a nice feeling.
“You always want to play well and score two or three goals but it’s nice to win when you are not playing well.
“The boys deserve a lot of credit and we wouldn’t have won that game on Tuesday night a few months back.”
The home side should be boosted by the return of striker Nathan Austin from injury, although Caolan McAleer and Kevin Smith will remain sidelined with knee problems.