Hibernian manager Pat Fenlon has urged his players not to let their standards slip in their potentially-dangerous Scottish Communities League Cup meeting with Queen of the South.
The Easter Road outfit have recovered from their comprehensive defeat to Dundee United on the opening weekend of the season to piece together a three-match unbeaten run, including rare back-to-back victories against St Mirren and St Johnstone.
It is early in the campaign but, after last term's successful relegation battle with Dunfermline, improvements appear to have been made and the capital club will take some satisfaction from sitting joint top of the Scottish Premier 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, defeating Second Division Cowdenbeath 3-2 and winning 2-0 against First Division Ayr United on their way to their ill-fated Scottish Cup final against Hearts.
While everyone at Easter Road is desperate to move on from May's 5-1 defeat to city rivals Hearts, Fenlon is keen his players remember the way the team handled those tricky ties on the way to Hampden.
He added: "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."
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