East Fife boss Gary Naysmith says he took plenty more positives than negatives from his side’s stalemate with Queen’s Park at the weekend.
The Fifers ended a run of three straight defeats by shutting out the Spiders at Bayview, and they will head to face another one of their promotion rivals in the form of Albion Rovers tomorrow with confidence.
“We had to work extremely hard to get that point,” Naysmith commented.
“All the players gave 100% and we had to be like that because for me Queen’s Park are the best footballing team in the league.
“I’m not being disrespectful to Albion Rovers or Arbroath but I just thought in the two games we had played against them, they played really, really well.
“Defensively I thought we looked very solid the back five were pretty much thrown together but I can’t remember Queen’s Park having a shot on target.
“So defensively, shape-wise, how hard we worked, I couldn’t have asked for more.
“At the other end, when we got into the wide areas we didn’t get the right deliveries but that will come and it’s something we’ll work on.”
Naysmith was particularly delighted with the debut of former Real Sociedad defender Julen Etxabeguren Leanizbarrutia, who earned himself the man of the match award.
“Bearing in mind he had only played one bounce game for us, and he hadn’t played a game since last season, he did really well,” he added.
“He had been training by himself but his fitness levels are great, so that’s a credit to him.
“It’s what I was expecting, although I didn’t want to say that to people beforehand.
“But I think we’re very fortunate to have him and I think the fans will realise that after watching him.
“I’m very pleased with him and I think he’s only going to get better.
“I still think we still need to strengthen the squad further and we still need to get two or three in.”