East Fife make a tricky post-Christmas trip to play Ayr United this afternoon with Bayview boss Gary Naysmith hoping last week’s home setback against Brechin was merely a blip.
Naysmith enjoyed back-to-back victories as he took caretaker charge of the team following the departure of Willie Aitchison, although his first official game after being named permanent boss ended in a 3-1 defeat last weekend.
However, it is very much a united front at East Fife at the moment and Naysmith has called on his players to respond in the right way when they visit Somerset Park.
“With us having Ayr and Rangers away for two of our next three games, it’s important that we stick together as a group,” he said.
“I’m not a ranter and a raver. I need them and they need the club so it’s important we stick together and put the Brechin game down as a one-off. We’re one out of three bad performances so that’s the warning and we need to put that to the side.”
The Fifers remain three points ahead of the drop zone but know that a victory today could potentially see them rise to sixth in the table depending on results elsewhere.
The hosts go into the game on a high however, having beaten Forfar at Station Park seven days ago and earning bragging rights over the Fifers thanks to a 3-1 win at Bayview earlier this season.
So Naysmith is under no illusions as to how tough a task it will be for his side to take all three points back to Fife.
“It’s a difficult game,” he said. “We played Ayr at Bayview. I played in that game if memory serves me right and I think we made a mistake and they went 1-0 up.
“We got it back to 1-1 and then we made another mistake so they were 2-1 up at half-time, and just before we regrouped and tried to get into the second half they scored a third.
“You’ve got to give them credit, they’ve done really well and we know what type of team they are, especially when they are at home.”
Cyrus Moosavi is out long-term through injury, although midfielder Paul Willis is recovering from an ankle injury and is nearing fitness.
Defender Joe Mbu is also likely to be back available.