Shotts boss John McKeown isn’t panicking after a point from their last two games left his side four points adrift in the West of Scotland First Division relegation zone.
The Hannah Park side are second bottom of the table but still have between two and seven games in hand over sides above them in the standings to haul themselves out of trouble.
A 1-0 defeat away to title-chasing Gartcairn last Wednesday night was followed by a 1-1 draw at home to Bonnyton Thistle on Saturday, courtesy of Taylor Evans’ first-half equaliser.
And McKeown believes the effort his side has shown in recent matches, despite dropping points, is a positive to take into their final nine games.
He said: “The commitment and effort I’ve seen off the players in the last few games has been different class.
“Sometimes teams can get disheartened when it’s not going for them, but that’s the real positive I’m taking from the last couple of games.
“We were unfortunate against Gartcairn last week. We dominated large spells of the game but made an error that allowed them to score.
“We just couldn’t get a goal ourselves, despite creating a few openings and having most of the possession, particularly in the second half.
“But that’s why they are up the top end and we are down the bottom end, because they take their chances when they come and they are able to defend a wee bit better than we did.
“I’ve felt like a broken record since January because individual errors have been killing us and not taking our chances. We’ve been really competing with the top teams.
“And Bonnyton was more of the same. We missed a penalty before half-time and we hit the woodwork twice – and that’s just the way it is going for us.
“But we’ve still got to play the teams around us and we still have nine games of the season left.
“Cumbernauld are ahead of us on goal difference, but we are four games behind them. Bonnyton is the other team a few points ahead but we’ve got seven games on them.
“Blantyre and Rutherglen are still in a bit of bother down there as well and these are all good teams with good players.
“It’s amazing how it’s worked out and it is such a tight league, but we just have to look after ourselves and not bother about other teams.
“We need to get points on the board, particularly when we play teams around us.”
Next up for The Bonny is a home clash with high-flying Johnstone Burgh tonight (Wednesday) and on Saturday they head to Blantyre Victoria, a side they beat earlier this month.
McKeown added: “Johnstone Burgh are going quite well. They just turned over Kilbirnie in their own backyard and have an outside chance of going up so it will be a tough game.
“They will want to avenge us beating 1-0 earlier in the season when we were going well ourselves.
“Then we’ve got Blantyre, who we beat 3-1 the other week, so it’s going to be an interesting time, for sure.”
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