The Meadows men have won three and lost one of their four league matches this season, with the heavy defeat at leaders Lasswade the only blip in an otherwise impressive start to the campaign.

The response to the loss there has been two comfortable victories and, with key games to come, Avis is looking for standards to improve further from his players.

He said: “I am trying to look at the rest of the season rather than taking each game as it comes. I am looking for my players to perform beyond what is required to win games as I want us to be firing on all cylinders for when we play the other teams who are going for promotion.

“We have games at Greenock Wanderers and Livingston next month which will be crucial and I want performances to be excellent rather than good.

“The players were disappointed they didn’t play as well as they could in winning at Irvine last Saturday, which I’m led to believe is a real shift forward in terms of our attitude of last season.

“I’m encouraged by the mentality I’m seeing and, hopefully, it will stand us in good stead for the big matches we have to come.”

While Avis is taking a long-term view to the season he insists the short-term focus will not suffer and he is expecting a tough game at East Kilbride tomorrow.

He said: “They are a stuffy side to play against. We are trying to improve on our performance of last weekend. If we show the right attitude and application I am confident we can do it and get the result we need.”