Its third versus fourth on Saturday, as we travel to Kirkcaldy to face Raith Rovers – live on BBC Alba with a 5.15pm kick off.
The Opposition
The Fife side sit just one place and one point behind us in the league and will be looking for a bit of revenge after losing 3-1 at Palmerston back in September.
After the success of last season, reaching the play-offs, manager Ray McKinnon took over at one of his former clubs Dundee United to be replaced at Starks Park by Gary Locke. Locke had previously managed Hearts and Kilmarnock, where he was also a player and a team mate of Gavin Skelton.
The new manager rang the changes during the summer with no fewer than 19 players leaving Kirkcaldy and 16 coming in. Locke went back to his old club, Kilmarnock, for 3 of those players – Chris Johnston, Kevin McHattie, who he had also managed at Hearts, and Conor Brennan – and also benefited from the, already arranged, transfer of Morton winger Bobby Barr. The "big" signing news of the summer for Rovers was the arrival of, ex Czech Republic international, Rudi Skacel who had enjoyed success in Scotland with Hearts. Skacels involvement, though, has mainly been from the bench so far this season.
Someone else who has made most of his appearances from the bench this season is Mark Stewart but after starting the last game against Falkirk and scoring two goals, on the way to a 4-2 Raith victory, he will surely be pushing for a place in the starting 11 this week – particularly as he has a habit of scoring against us, having netted 5 times in the last two seasons.
The only ex Queens player in the Raith squad is Craig Barr, who is currently out injured and we wish him a speedy recovery.
In our squad, Saturday will see a return to his former club for Grant Anderson, who spent over 4 years and made over 100 appearances for Raith, as well as Lee Robinson who, despite only making a dozen or so appearances, was part of their Challenge Cup winning side in 2014 – a final won with a goal by another ex-player of both clubs, John Baird.
The Game
This Ladbrokes Championship match kicks off at 5.15pm on Saturday 29th October at Starks Park, Kirkcaldy.
Live updates will be available on the website and on Twitter and Facebook. We will also publish pictures through the day on our new Instagram Channel
The game is also live on BBC Alba
The Fans
The away support will be accommodated in the Turnbull Hutton Stand for this match. (NB this is the Main Stand and not the McDermid Stand, which is the usual away support section)
Admission prices are:
Adult £15
Junior (Under 16, when accompanied by an adult) : £5
Junior (12-16, when unaccompanied) : £8
Senior Citizen (Over 65) : £8
College/Uni Concession : £10
Jobseeker Concession : £10
Disability & Carer Concession (Disabled person £8 with Carer FREE)
The Bar in the Turnbull Hutton Stand will be open to all from 1500.
All concessions must be purchased from the Main Ticket Office at the Turnbull Hutton Stand and the turnstiles will open at 1445.
The Dressing Room
"It goes without saying that our last two results have been disappointing but there was more than enough in our performance at Somerset last week to suggest that we will start getting the breaks again.
I'm still at a loss as to how we lost the game last week never mind that we haven't taken anything from it. I know we didn't work the keeper hard enough but we created chances and had several good opportunities. It wasn't a bad performance they showed plenty of effort and the right attitude. Of course it's a concern that we're not scoring but I'd be more concerned if we weren't getting ourselves into the goal-scoring positions that we have been doing. If anything the strikers are probably trying too hard, they may be over practicing as they always stay after training for extra crossing and finishing.
We're in a wee spell just now where things aren't breaking for us, earlier in the season we probably created less chances but got the breaks. I'm confident enough that it will turn again and if we keep doing what we're doing I'm sure it will come. We didn't get carried away when things were going well and we're not going to get anxious now after a couple of poor results as I'm sure a good win is just around the corner.
It's just as easy to go on a good run as it is to have a bad one, so we will build the confidence back up and go again.
The quality could be better but the attitude can't be faulted.
This week we head to Raith who are on a good run of form, they had a sticky patch a few weeks ago when they were hit by injuries but they've got their players back and have started to pick up results.
The support have been great this season, especially away from home. I hope they again travel in their numbers and get behind the team as their backing really does mean a lot and is really appreciated by us all."
The Team
There are no fresh injuries in the squad, but its unlikely any of the currently injured players will be available for this match.
The Officials
Referee : Crawford Allan
Assistant 1 : Stuart Stevenson
Assistant 2 : David Doig
4th Official : Graham Beaton
Mr Allan is a referee we know well. He has taken charge in 21 of our games going back 10 years, including our 2013 Challenge Cup final win over Partick Thistle. His last two games in the middle, though, have seen away defeats – to Rangers and St Mirren last season. Lets hope he doesn’t make it a hat-trick on Saturday!
The Stats
The head to head stats show Raith ahead with 40 wins to 33, and 31 draws. This is helped by a good record at Starks Park where we have won just 15 times in 51 games, with Rovers recording 24 victories.
The Kirkcaldy side also won 3 of the 4 league games last season, the other a 1-1 draw at Palmerston. The last time we won at Starks Park was October 2014, when Iain Russell scored very late to earn a 4-3 victory. That game was also live on TV.
(We've had to use a different source for stats this week, so apologies for any inaccuracies)