Albion Rovers boss Brian Reid admits his side weren't at the races last night as they went down to a heavy defeat at home to Annan.
The Cliftonhill side had taken four points from their previous two games but any hopes of stringing a run of results together were thwarted by the Galabankies.
Goals from Tony Wallace, Aidan Smith, Owen Moxon and Iain Anderson did the damage to send them second in League Two, with Rovers netting a consolation through David Wilson.
Rovers are ninth and seven points ahead of rock-bottom Cowdenbeath going into the business end of the campaign with a couple of games in hand over the teams above them.
And Reid knows his side will need to up their game.
He said: "We never performed to the levels we know we can last night and we went into the game knowing that, with a win, we could have jumped a couple of places, so it was a big disappointment.
"It's alright having games in hand but we've got to start picking up points.
"We were never really at the races.
"Annan out-worked us and out-battled us. They got their rewards for that, albeit the goals we lost were really poor, especially the third and fourth goals.
"That flattered them a bit.
"When you don't play well you've got to dig in and ground out a clean sheet like we did at Stranraer last week, but when we defend in that manner, that's not going to happen.
"I can't take too much away from Annan because they are a good team. They are second in the league and have done really well this season.
"They punished us for every mistake we made and that's why they are up there.
"Big improvements are required for Saturday."
Edinburgh City visit Cliftonhill this weekend and Rovers will be aiming to keep up their record against the Ainslie Park outfit.
Reid's men have won all of the previous three league meetings - including a thumping 4-0 win in November - and it's imperative they make it four.
He added: "Edinburgh haven't beat us this season so that's something we really want to keep going, but we know they'll be determined to try and stop us.
"We are going through a wee spell where we aren't creating as much as we usually do.
"We know what we are capable of, but we need to be better in the final third like we were earlier in the season.
"There's a lot of games coming up and we will need to rotate the squad so there's a chance for other people to come in and see if they can do the job for us."
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