Pat Fenlon has warned his Hibernian players they must maintain their recent level of performances to avoid an upset in the Scottish Communities League Cup.
The Easter Road side take on Second Division opposition Queen of the South in the competition on Tuesday night, having registered a second successive win by defeating St Johnstone 2-0 in the SPL on Saturday.
Fenlon’s side recovered from defeat to Dundee United and a derby draw with Hearts to beat St Mirren last weekend and the manager hopes they can continue their winning run in Dumfries.
"In the early rounds of the cup people are always looking to see if there will be a shock somewhere," he said. "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.
"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."
Hibs go to Celtic on Saturday in a fixture which could end their unbeaten run, but Fenlon wants his team to believe they can get a positive result.
"Without getting carried away, the results have been okay and the performances have been okay as well," he said.
"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."
