Peterhead were held to a gritty 0-0 draw by East Fife and were left to count the cost of an early penalty miss.
Russell McLean was denied from 12 yards in the first-half for the visitors in a game short on goalscoring opportunities.
The Blue Toon remain in seventh, while the home side are eight points adrift at the bottom.
Peterhead made one change from the penalty shoot-out win over East Kilbride, with Niah Payne into the side at the expense of Hamish Ritchie.
Stevie Crawford’s side, who are in desperate need of points at the foot of League One, threatened first. Kyle Connell’s ambitious try from 30 yards fizzed just over Brett Long’s crossbar and a Payne error was nearly punished by Aaron Steele, only for Jason Brown to block his shot.
The Blue Toon, who started with new additions Rico Quitongo and Owen Cairns on the bench, had the perfect chance to open the scoring on 21 minutes from the spot.
McLean was brought down by Chris Higgins while attempting to lob the goalkeeper, earning his side a penalty. But Scott Gallacher read his spot-kick and dived to his left to save.
After that the game descended into a scrappy, niggly affair, with neither side able to string together a decent spell of possession.
McLean was cutting a more isolated figure up front and Peterhead’s wide players, Payne and Ryan Duncan, were struggling to have an influence on the game.
Grant Savoury appeared to be the only player who could hold on to the ball long enough to make something happen. He won a free-kick for his side on the stroke of half-time that Andy McDonald fired over.
It was centre-back McDonald who had the best chance of the second half too, heading over from eight yards from Duncan’s corner.
Peterhead had Long to thank for keeping them in the game with a double-save to deny Connell and Darren Watson, after Simon Ferry had gone down injured.
Quitongo and Cairns both came on for their debuts in the second period but playing into the wind, Jim McInally’s side were struggling to fashion any clear chances.
East Fife were adamant they had a late penalty call for handball against David Wilson but the referee was unmoved, before Long had to be out quickly to deny Scott Mercer.
Peterhead’s final attempt came in stoppage-time after Gallacher had been caught off his line from a free-kick, but Higgins swept in to prevent substitute Derek Lyle from finding the winner.
