Paul Hartley reflected on the positives from Cove’s 0-0 draw at East Fife.
The draw was the club’s second in a row following on from the 1-1 scoreline at Partick Thistle seven days previous.
Trips to Firhill and Bayview are amongst the toughest away days in the division, and Hartley is content with the work done by his side.
Cove and their Fife hosts couldn’t be pulled apart on Saturday, with the visitors’ best chance falling to Mitch Megginson, who saw his second-half penalty saved by Brett Long.
“I thought we were better in the first half than the second. It was scrappy at times,” conceded Hartley.
“We had a good moment in the game and didn’t take the chance, but Mitch has won us so many games this season.
“I don’t think there was a lot of action in the second half near their goal, but, when you’re away from home, you have to try to fight for every point.
“It’s going to be like that until the end of the season.
“We knew that would be the case with the amount of games and the congestion after such a long lay-off.
“We’ve had two tough away games so far at Partick and East Fife.
“We’ll take the point and another good thing is the clean sheet – we looked fairly solid at times.”
Neither side could really boast about bossing any point of the match, with play swinging largely from end to end.
Jamie Masson skied an effort high over the bar for Hartley’s men, with Liam Watt passing up the best chance East Fife could create.
The game was open enough, but it was apparent that whoever notched the opening goal had probably done enough to win it.
Cove had their chance first after Watt tripped Connor Smith inside the box.
Megginson stepped up, but Long stood his ground and beat the spot-kick away before getting back on his feet quickly to snuff out the rebound effort.
East Fife’s golden chance came in the dying seconds when they hit the net through Aaron Dunsmore, only for ref Mike Roncone to haul the play back for an earlier foul and refuse the advantage.
From the free-kick, Ryan Wallace crashed his drive off the bar.
Cove defender Ryan Strachan admitted there had been a lack of sharpness, but is convinced it will return sooner rather than later.
“It’s still really early after coming back,” he said.
“There’s rustiness, even though we’re a fit bunch.
“Defences were on top, but we still had a couple of half-chances and so did East Fife, especially towards the end.”