The Lichties suffered their first league defeat at the weekend, but boss John McGlashan was upbeat.

"Saturday's performance was very good, considering we were playing away from home against one of the top teams in the division. We more than matched them for long periods of the game.

"I feel we were a bit unfortunate not to go on and win so, although we got beat and were disappointed with the outcome, there were too many positives for me to be downcast."

None of the Arbroath players suffered injury problems during the match, although Bryan Scott and Allan Rattray were unable to take part. Scott has a knee injury and Rattray suffered damaged ankle ligaments in the match against Stirling Albion.

Mr McGlashan explained: "They have done a bit of training this week and, if I feel they are fully fit, then they will be in the squad for Saturday."

He revealed that Paul Watson had a successful hernia operation on Monday and should be back in light training within about 10 days.

The manager said that everyone is looking forward to meeting up with their adversaries from the last couple of seasons - East Fife - who are visitors to Gayfield tomorrow (Saturday).

He continued: "They ran away with the league and were deserved champions last year but, it is a new season, a new team, a new division! We will go into the game on the back of some good performances. We know that East Fife have many talented players and from that perspective it will be good for some of our lads to play against internationalists such as Steven Crawford and Goran Stanic.

"We realise that East Fife have not had best of starts and results, but their performances have actually been quite good. They have had a decent record here in the last couple of seasons and will be coming with victory in mind."

The visit of Inverness Caley Thistle on Wednesday is an enjoyable distraction for Mr McGlashan. He said: "This is an interesting tie, because we had Caley Thistle at this stage of the competition last season, but this time it is at home.

"We have absolutely nothing to lose. No-one is expecting us to go and beat Inverness but no-one expected Inverness to go and beat Celtic! That is the joy of the cup."

Read more in this week's Arbroath Herald.
Listen to an excerpt from our interview with the boss by clicking the icon at the top of the page.