ALLOA boss Jim Goodwin praised East Fife after the two sides played out a goalless draw at Bayview last Saturday.

That brought the Wasps’ four-game winning streak to an end, but Goodwin was determined to take the positives from the stalemate.

And he praised his defence, much-improved in recent matches, after they picked up another clean sheet.

Goodwin told Advertiser Sport: “It’s always disappointing when you don’t win but we know East Fife are a decent side. They have only lost once in their last 15 or so games and that was against us. They are a very well-organised team. To be honest I think both teams cancelled each other out. Neither team created any clear-cut chances and I think the draw was probably a fair result.

“It isn’t often that we don’t score. Recently we have been focusing on defending properly and keeping clean sheets, and it’s sod’s law that when we do that we then don’t score at the other end. That’s football sometimes though, and you have to give East Fife credit for how well they defended.

“Defensively, we have been excellent since the turn of the year.

"The boys have built up a really good understanding at the back. It is a real team effort and everyone chips in with defensive duties when they have to. That is something which stands us in good stead heading into the final few games.”

The Wasps’ draw meant Livingston stretched their lead at the top of the table back to nine points with victory over Stranraer, but Goodwin insisted that his side will not give up hope and remain confident of catching their promotion rivals.

He said: “Livingston have been very consistent and when they have drawn or lost, they have more often than not gone on to win the next game. They did it again on Saturday. By all accounts there was not a lot in that game but Liam Buchanan has popped up with a late goal again. They do that so often so it isn’t going to be easy for us, but even though most people outside of our dressing room have written us off, I can assure everyone that we still believe. We certainly won’t give up.”

Alloa last week succeeded in tying striker Declan MacDonald to the club for a further two seasons, and Goodwin says the youngster, who made his senior debut in the Stirlingshire Cup last season aged just 15, has the potential to go far in the game.

He added: “We are delighted to get Declan tied up. He has fantastic potential and before he signed there were a number of teams keeping tabs on him. Even though he has a lot of learning still to do, the potential is there and we are pleased that he sees Alloa as a platform to go on and be as good as he can be.”