Doonhamers Out To Spoil Party

28 August 2012 11:49
Hibs are off to Dumfries on the back of two league wins but have to be wary of Queen of the South who will be no walk-overs

Queen of the South player-manager Allan Johnston has included himself in the tonight's squad to face Hibs after serving his suspension. However, the Doonhamers manager will be without the injured Willie Gibson and Kevin Smith for the Scottish Communities League Cup second round tie at Palmerston Park. Johnston said: "Hibs are on a great run just now but this is a massive game for our players. We will need to step up our game a bit but it is an occasion I am looking forward to as our players have the opportunity to test themselves against a team from the top division and learn from it. We have talented players and if they work hard and their quality comes through then we will give Hibs a really hard game.'' Hibs manager Pat Fenlon has urged his players not to let their standards slip in their potentially-dangerous cup tie. The Easter Road side have recovered from their comprehensive defeat to Dundee United in their opening league fixture to put together a three-game unbeaten run, including rare back-to-back wins over St Mirren and St Johnstone. It is very early in the season but, after last term's ultimately successful relegation battle with Dunfermline, improvements appear to have been made and the club will take some satisfaction from sitting joint top of the league with champions Celtic, who they face at Parkhead on Saturday. However, Fenlon knows that Second Division Queen of the South present his team with the proverbial banana skin that could undo all the good work of the last few weeks. He said: "Without getting carried away, the results have been okay and the performances have been okay as well. We're at a level now where we expect to be at this club and we want to try and maintain it. It's about trying to put together a run of games and that obviously breeds confidence and breeds confidence in players. In the early rounds of the cup people are always looking to see if there will be a shock somewhere. Hibs are a big club and they look at the big clubs to see if one of them could get knocked out early. It's important we guard against that and approach the game in the right manner and it's about focusing the minds of the players.'' Hibs survived trips to lower-league opposition last season, beating Second Division Cowdenbeath 3-2 and winning 2-0 against First Division Ayr United on their way to the Scottish Cup final against Hearts. While everyone at Easter Road is desperate to move on from May's 5-1 defeat to their city rivals, Fenlon is keen his players remember the way the team handled those tricky ties on the way to Hampden. He went on: "We've had Queen of the South watched two or three times and I've sat down and watched a few DVDs, so we know as much as we probably can. They've got some decent players as well. We know from last year, going to Cowdenbeath and Ayr United, that when you go to those sorts of places you get nothing easy. We had to work hard in both games and this will be no different.''

Source: FOOTYMAD