The Wasps are two points ahead of the Blue Brazil, having played a game more, but the Cowdenbeath boss reckons Alloa will be upbeat after recent performances, including narrow defeats by league leaders Hearts and Falkirk a draw with Rangers.

Nicholl said, “They only got beat in the last couple of minutes by the team at the top of the league, so it will be a really difficult game against them.

“They put up a good show and they’ll be confident. They’ve beaten us 3-0 at home, they’ve beaten Hibs and they’ve put in a good performance against Hearts.

“But we’ve done well in the last couple of games against Queen of the South and Dumbarton, the players have done really well and we’ll be looking at getting those three points to get us off the bottom.” Cowdenbeath go into the game having had a weekend off due to their fixture against Rangers being rearranged for 4th November, and Nicholl admits that they’d rather have played the game.

“It’s a shame because the players were really looking forward to the Rangers game - you want to play the teams like Rangers, Hibs and Hearts,” he said.

“But we had a good hard session on Friday and then they got the Saturday and Sunday off. We’d like to go into the Rangers game with a couple of good results behind us but that seems a million miles away just now.” The extra week off has given some players the chance to recover, with Lewis Milne and Nat Wedderburn expected back but skipper John Armstrong (below) still out.

After being unbeaten in their last two games, Nicholl knows how important it is for his Cowden team to keep the momentum going.

“People look at the Hibs and Hearts games where we lost a lot of goals but we got a clean sheet against Dumbarton and three points against Queen of the South,” he said.

“We knew we had something to build on, even at the bottom of the league. Now it’s about keeping going and getting those points to get us off the bottom.”