East Fife 0-0 Queen's Park

To say it was a drab encounter at Bayview would be putting it mildly with neither side really posing a threat to the other.

It's never great to drop two points at home and East Fife will have expected better, but considering it came against a team still challenging themselves to reach the play-offs, coupled with draws for Airdrie and Albion Rovers, it's another game down in the race to reach the top four.

That's all that matters for an East Fife side who will have the perfect chance to get back into the winning groove on Saturday when they face bottom of the league Stenhousemuir.

It was a point gained according to boss Barry Smith, who can see his side edging even closer to the play-offs.

Smith said: “It wasn’t a great game by any stretch of the imagination but at this stage of the season there won’t be many.

“We have to keep making sure that we stick with it.

“Our boys know we can play better and there will be games where there isn’t much in it and it’s not a great game."

With points at this stage of the season crucial for a variety of reasons, both sides were keen to notch all three to boost their promotion chances.

But after a bright opening when Scott Robinson flashed a strike wide, the game settled down into quite a turgid affair.

Both Queen's Park and Smith's East Fife are incredibly well drilled and disciplined in their positions and neither gave ground.

Willie Muir pulled off a remarkable save from an Alex Cooper header while Mark Hurst was kept up to his work by Dario Zanatta.

In the end neither could find a way to goal, and had to settle for a deserved share of the spoils.