Gary Naysmith insists East Fife are getting the best out of their pre-season campaign despite slipping to a third consecutive loss.
The Methil men have yet to score to a goal in any of their last three games, but the Methil gaffer says the fixtures need to be taken into context.
Saturday’s 3-0 home defeat to Hearts followed on the back of a 4-0 defeat to St Johnstone and a 3-0 loss to Fulham.
Boss Naysmith, though, is not too downbeat.
He said: “Although we’ve lost the last three games, and I hate losing, you have to remember who we’ve played.
“We’ve played a team just relegated from the Premier League, a team that won the Scottish Cup, and Hearts who are a good side and will be going for promotion from the Championship.
“Although the fans will be disappointed at getting beaten I’d urge them to look at the quality of opposition we’ve played in the space of a week.
“We changed things around a bit at half time, so when they had the ball we just dropped off and let them have it, and I thought in the second half we were far, far better.”
Hearts opened the scoring when a Gary Oliver shot came back off the post and Prince Buaben netted the rebound.
It was 2-0 shortly before the break when the lively Oliver got clear of his marker and stooped to head home a Billy King corner.
East Fife had chances of their own through Jon McShane and Kevin Smith, but neither seriously troubled Neil Alexander
Hearts were gifted a third when Fleming made a hash of a pass back and Osman Sow capitalised to prod the ball home.
Naysmith gave a second-half run-out to former Forfar striker Ross Campbell as a trialist and said a deal could be done for the ex Loon.
He said: “I was speaking to his dad about something and Ross’s name came up.
“He was on holiday at the time but when he came back we gave him a phone and he’ll be in for the next week.
“If he likes us and we like him it may be something that we do.”