Captain Mitch Megginson called on Cove Rangers not to let their standards drop after making it 14 wins out of 14 at home.
The Granite City side remain 10 points clear at the top of League Two after Saturday’s 3-2 win over Brechin City at the Balmoral Stadium.
However, skipper Megginson – who bagged a brace – felt it was one of Cove’s poorer performances of the season at home with the bottom-of-the-table visitors rallying from 3-0 down.
The striker said: “It was good to get the three points and that’s the most important thing.
“But performance-wise we probably weren’t at our best – it’s probably the worst we’ve played at home.
“OK, we went 3-0 up, but then we seemed to take the foot off the gas.
“And we got a reminder that in this league teams will punish you if you do that. But it was important we still managed to get the points.
“We’ve got to keep standards high, we know there will be games where we drop.
“But we want to stay at a certain level and we had that conversation after the game.
“We’ve got another big game tomorrow against Stirling Albion, but we need to be better than we were on Saturday to get something out of that.”
Despite disappointment at their display against Brechin, Megginson knows Cove are still in a great position heading into the final quarter of the season.
He added: “We couldn’t ask to be in a better position. We’ve worked hard to get there and it’s up to us to work hard to make sure we stay there.
“It was another win ticked off on Saturday, but now we move on to the next one.”
Brechin had a good early chance when Ryan Strachan lost possession in his own area but Ryan McCord’s effort from 12 yards was well saved by keeper Stuart McKenzie.
Cove were on the front foot after that and MEGGINSON converted a 12th-minute penalty after being tripped by Alex Petkov.
Broque Watson’s chipped effort went narrowly past and a Megginson strike from 25 yards hit the right post before the end of the half as Cove lost Rory McAllister to a thigh problem.
Three minutes after the break MEGGINSON notched his second from 12 yards after Daniel Higgins’ neat interchange with Watson down the left created the chance.
Jamie MASSON prodded home the third from close range on 54 minutes after Harry Milne’s cross from the left wasn’t cleared.
Shortly after the hour former Cove striker Martin SCOTT pulled one back for Brechin, turning in a Sean McIntosh delivery. And SCOTT got his double in stoppage time, scoring from the spot after ref Duncan Williams adjudged Higgins had pulled him to the ground.
Cove boss Paul Hartley said: “I couldn’t really see it to be honest, but it’s one of them – I’ve seen them given and seen them not given.
“But it happened because of our slackness because we took our foot off it.
“I just felt we were sloppy and loose in possession and I didn’t feel we did the basic things well enough.
“I’m happy to get three points, but I’m not happy with how we played. We’ve set high standards this season.
“We need to show we can manage the game and when we get to 3-2 it can become tricky.”
