Dougie Anderson admitted East Fife lacked the cutting edge to take anything from their meeting with Queen’s Park at Hampden.
The Fifers went down to a first-half Gregor Fotheringham effort and failed to pose too much of a threat of their own.
The Methil men have been nursing an extensive injury and illness list, but assistant boss Anderson refused to make any excuses, saying his side just hadn’t shown the guile needed.
He said: “Queen’s Park are a dogged team and we knew what we were coming to.
“We just couldn’t break them down and didn’t have that quality in the final third in terms of opening them up,” he said.
“We missed a game last Saturday so maybe just lacked that bit of sharpness. Our use of the ball also could have been a bit better.
“A couple of times Chris Kane tried diagonal passes when there was a simple pass on.
“The players are all 100% committed and just want to do well for the team, but sometimes you just have to be patient.”
East Fife settled into the game well and forced a couple of early corners.
Decent set-piece deliveries by Scott Mercer and Gary Naysmith caused problems for the Spiders defence.
Quarter of an hour into the game the hosts grabbed a goal that had more than a hint of fortune about it. The ball broke to Fotheringham on the edge of the box and he decided to try his luck.
Naysmith was out first to block his strike but the ball deflected off the player-boss and beyond Mark Hurst.
After a bright early start, East Fife had to soak up a lot of pressure with Queen’s looking to double their lead before the break.
East Fife found themselves shut out as their usual creative spark was put out by the home side.
Hurst in the East Fife goal was by far the busier of the keepers.