Injuries hurting us but we must do better, says Edinburgh City boss Gary Naysmith

Gary Naysmith reckons Edinburgh City captain Robbie McIntyre is the best left-back in the league, but he remains out injured for another month

However, the former Hearts and Everton full-back insists tonight's visit of Stranraer provides the ideal opportunity for his players to make amends.

The Citizens were outplayed by the Coatbridge outfit and could have lost by more than a four-goal deficit at Ainslie Park.

The Capital outfit, who remain sixth in the League Two standings, five points off the promotional play-off berths, have a host of key players missing through injury, many of whom Naysmith doesn't expect to return anytime soon.

Edinburgh City manager Gary Naysmith knows his team must improve on last week's display

However, the 42-year-old is expecting a much-improved display tonight from a squad determined to right their wrongs.

"When you have a disappointing result and performance it's important you bounce back in the next game and we've got a chance to do that tonight," Naysmith explained.

"For various reasons we didn't perform anywhere near the levels we have in recent weeks against Albion Rovers. All across the board it wasn't good enough – from me or the players.

“The energy and the creativity just weren't there and the goals we gave away were very cheap. For the players we had on the pitch I expected more.

"It was probably the first game I've thought it looked as though we were missing a lot of players through injury. I was hurt, the players were hurt and I was angry with the performance we put in.

"Certain areas of the pitch are hurting us. For me I've got the two best left-backs in the league (captain Robbie McIntyre and Callum Crane) and I've not had them for four weeks and I'm not going to have them for several weeks, even months."

Naysmith added: "We can't get a settled back four to build partnerships, to keep clean sheets and I also can't get a settled centre midfield two so when you are trying to build the spine of your team and then you work off the rest of it, I can't do that."

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