East Fife boss Gary Naysmith hopes his squad can weather the injury storm that is threatening to scupper their survival bid.
The Methil club occupy the relegation play-off spot in League One, and Saturday’s 5-0 defeat at home to Ayr was their fourth straight loss.
However, the dip in form has coincided with the absence of several key players who Naysmith had hoped to have at his disposal to help keep the Fifers afloat.
Scott McBride, Gary Fisher, Ross Brown, Joe Mbu and Dave Cowan all missed the weekend’s game, and most if not all will be ruled out for this week’s derby against Dunfermline.
Naysmith told Courier Sport: “I’ve tried not to make an issue of it because we should have a good enough team to put out, but it has been difficult with the amount of injuries we’ve had.”
He continued: “Scott McBride has been out for 10 games, Gary Fisher is three to four weeks away, Ross Brown is three to four weeks away, Joe Mbu is three to four weeks away and Davie Cowan missed last week.
“But as well as the ones we’re missing at the moment, Stevie Campbell has played a couple of games and then missed a couple, played a couple and missed a couple, and we’ve only recently got Pat Clarke back from his dislocated shoulder.
“So we’ve been very restricted in how we can change things.”
Naysmith is keen to see his team kick-start their season with a win this weekend, but the Bayview boss admits taking three points from promotion-chasing Dunfermline will be a tough task.
“It doesn’t get any easier, but we’ve got to realise that as a group,” he said.
“We’ve got to get together, be tight, be close, help each other, battle for each other and get through it. Hopefully we’ll get a few of the players back soon so we can then look to try a few things.
“But for whatever reason the last game-and-a-half has been very, very disappointing. I’ll be working hard to get it right.”
Naysmith knows there is only one way his team will extricate themselves from their precarious predicament.
“It is going to be hard work that gets us out of it,” he said. “It’s not rocket science.
“There isn’t much between the teams in the league, but the ones that work hard and can show a bit of resilience when things are going wrong against them tend to get the breaks. At this moment in time we’re not doing that.
“I don’t have all the answers, but the one thing I knew as a player is when you have bad times you’ve got to work hard.”