Dunfermline: James McPake reacts after Arbroath draw

Craig Wighton's last minute equaliser gave the Pars a point at Gayfield after Jay Bird, who was sent off for clashing with a team-mate, had given the hosts the lead in first half stoppage time.

McPake, however, had to contend with the loss of stand-in skipper Hamilton, who was hurt in a collision with Bird, and McCann, who pulled up with a hamstring problem, during the first half.

"Hammy’s doesn’t look great at all, it was his cheekbone. Their doctor, credit to him, he went on and said to get him off right away," the boss said post-match.

"He is away to the hospital, I don’t know if it was a boot or a head knock, but whatever it was, it was a sore one for him.

"Then we all saw Lewis pulling up, so that’s not great either. It’s his hamstring.

"We have done all this before, you look through the training and see do we do too much of something? Then Hammy comes off with a facial injury, and Lewis can sprint about forever, so there is obviously something there with his injury.

"We will assess it. We are in tomorrow to assess that and have a look to see where we are.

"The good thing is we should have (Sam) Fisher back for next week, (Kyle) Benedictus is really close. The squad is okay in terms of that but we are certainly picking up our fair share of injuries."

On the game itself, McPake commented: "It was a poor goal that we lost but, look, for me, it's a learning curve for Ewan Otoo.

"The kid was outstanding last week as a left centre back, then he moves into the middle of the pitch, and it seems to be every time we put him in there, we lose a centre back and then he's going back there.

"It's a great learning curve for him because he's that strong that, sometimes, he wants to use that, but he needs to learn, going up levels as well.

"That boy's a handful when he's on it, so he needs to learn sometimes just to step off the game.

"Otherwise, I thought he was excellent. You talk about recovering from that, he then comes in and starts playing really well in the game.

"It looked like we could've played forever and not scored if I'm honest. That was the way it was looking.

Craig Wighton's leveller gave the Pars a point. (Image: Craig Brown.)

"I think we kept going, aided by the fact that they went down to 10 men.

"I think, for a while, that was the most exciting thing. I don't mean that in that way, but it was not so much a boring game, but there wasn't much going in it, certainly from a Dunfermline point of view.

"We just looked flat, if I'm honest. I don't know if the changes effected that, but that shouldn't.

"Everybody keeps saying, and we spoke about it through the week, Arbroath in December and the weather - it was a great day for football.

"The pitch is heavy but our pitch is heavy,every grass pitch you play on is heavy, so no excuses in terms of the flatness.

"We didn't deserve to win that game, we know that. We'd have loved to have gone on and won it, but credit to them. They kept going in the end."

When it was put to him that his team tried everything in a bid to find a spark, and it was suggested that included going to a back four, McPake replied: "No not from us.

"You always go into a game with certain things in your head, shapes you want to play. We started with the two number tens behind Lewis (McCann). We lost Lewis, and you can plan all you want, but when they went down to ten it probably looked like a back four at times, just with us stepping in a wee bit. It looked like we were going to keep trying and not get anywhere, but credit to Craig Wighton.

"We were critical of them last week for their set plays, but I thought we defended our box really well because they put a lot of balls into our box from in play and from set plays.

"The goal was good and, at the end, I think it was Wighton again who had another chance. He has been ill and I think you can see that he doesn’t even look himself at the minute. He was desperate to get on and play, so credit to him."

The draw was Arbroath's fourth point from as many matches since ex-Pars boss, Jim McIntyre, was installed as Dick Campbell's successor.

"Obviously the turning point in the game was the incident with our two players," he said.

"They weren't happy with each other. One had a shot, one wanted a pass, and it's just totally unprofessional what then ensued, and both will be dealt with internally.

"For me to be coming out after such a sterling effort by the players, those two included, and to have to be talking about that is just not acceptable."

He added: "I'm really disappointed that we never managed to take the three points. I thought it was fairly even first half, the Pars had a couple of good chances second half, but I think we had more.

"At 11 v 11, I thought we looked as if we'd go on and win the game, but you've got to credit them. They've put a corner in the box and, for us, we've got to be better defending it."