Cove Rangers winger Luis Longstaff believes there was more fight from the squad in their 1-1 draw with Hamilton Accies.
Paul Hartley’s men had been on a six-game losing streak until picking up a point at New Douglas Park on Saturday against their fellow Championship strugglers.
Longstaff netted the opener for Cove in the 57th minute, but Connor Smith equalised for Accies with a penalty just four minutes later.
The draw keeps Cove bottom of the table with 27 points, two points adrift of Hamilton Accies, who have a game in hand – which they play tomorrow night against Greenock Morton.
After the game, Cove boss Hartley said he was pleased a reaction from the players following a poor run of form, and Longstaff agrees with his manager.
He said: “The attitude going into the match was that it was a do-or-die game and if we’d lost it then it would’ve been a task to catch Hamilton and Arbroath.
“It’s disappointing not to win it because if you look at most of the game, I think we had the better of the play and created some good chance.
“It’s one of those where we said at half-time, if we can’t win it, we don’t lose it – so we’re not totally out of it.
“We showed more fight and I thought the play as a team was a lot better than the last few weeks. Those are the positives we can take.
“You can see, even when it went 1-1, there was a massive difference from the last few weeks. If we can just add a bit more quality on to that then I don’t think we are too far away.”
Results by any means necessary
Longstaff believes Cove still have a chance to beat the drop and the midfielder says they will be willing to do whatever it takes to stay in the Championship.
The Aberdeen side have four games left to play, which are against Caley Thistle, Arbroath, Dundee and Morton.
Longstaff added: “When you are bottom of the table it’s about grinding out results in the last four games, no one cares about performances if you get the results.
“Hopefully the results against Hamilton and Arbroath go our way as well because we haven’t had a lot of luck.”
Longstaff’s goal against Hamilton – a low drive from inside the box – was his first goal for Cove this season. He was delighted to score, but admitted it should’ve happened before now.
He said: “When you score your first goal in whatever month it is now, it’s not the best.
“You are happy to score but it’s not a good return. My performances haven’t been bad, but the numbers should be a lot better.”
Conversation