Cove Rangers may be sitting bottom of their Premier Sports Cup group but Blair Yule believes they can take confidence from how they have performed in the competition.
The Aberdeen outfit were beaten 5-0 at home by Spartans in their opening Group E game before drawing 1-1 with Forfar Athletic and missing out on the bonus point in the shootout.
Yule said: “It was a good performance against Livingston. If you look back a week ago we have come on a good bit.
“We are still missing a couple of players so we were happy with the performance as we worked hard.
“Against Spartans, they maybe overpowered us a little bit as they had some big players but we coped better with that challenge against Livingston.
“We kept our shape well and were difficult to break down.
“I thought we did well.
“We probably should have won the Forfar game last weekend and then, against tough opposition, we performed well against Livingston so we can take confidence from the past two games.”
League start is the priority
Cove complete their group games with a trip to Dunfermline on Saturday and Yule says the bigger picture is to make sure the players are ready for the start of the League One campaign when they host Annan Athletic a week on Saturday.
He said: “Although this is a cup competition we are still getting up to speed with our fitness.
“A lot of the guys have played 90 minutes now and we are at that level.
“It is now about building our sharpness.
“Dunfermline will be another tough team and we are playing them on their patch.
“It will be more minutes in the tank to help us get ready for next week.
“The more time we spend together the better.
“We have the mix of part-time and full-time players but the majority are full-time and they will get to know each other really well which will be beneficial.”
Cove manager Paul Hartley also feels encouraged by how his players have responded to their opening night defeat against Spartans.
He said: “The week before you are feeling like it is the end of the world after a bad defeat but we have followed up with two good performances to show we are a work in progress.
“If we can keep working and add the players we want to add then I think we’ll be OK.
“Our aim since day one of pre-season has been getting ourselves right for the start of the league campaign next Saturday.
“This will be our 10th game since coming back if you include the pre-season friendlies, which has been a lot of games and minutes, but I do feel that will benefit us in the long run.”