St Ives manager Ricky Marheineke was looking to the positives despite his side twice drawing a blank inside a week of festive football.

The Hunts Post: Action from St Ives' clash with Lowestoft. Picture: LOUISE THOMPSONAction from St Ives' clash with Lowestoft. Picture: LOUISE THOMPSON (Image: All Rights Reserved 2016)

Ives followed up their scoreless draw against Royston on Boxing Day with another 0-0 result against Lowestoft at Westwood Road on Saturday.

Despite some presentable chances to take the win, St Ives were ultimately frustrated and were forced to settle from two points from the six available in the final two matches of the year.

Despite that, however, Marheineke hailed the level of performance shown by his side in a busy period.

He said: “I’m not disappointed at all with the performance. Yes, Lowestoft at home would have been one of the games we felt we needed to take maximum points from but, again, we have taken four points from a team this season and if we continue to take four points from the teams that are going to be in and around us then, by the end of the season, we will be ok.

The Hunts Post: Action from St Ives' clash with Lowestoft. Picture: LOUISE THOMPSONAction from St Ives' clash with Lowestoft. Picture: LOUISE THOMPSON (Image: All Rights Reserved 2016)

“I am happy with the point, I think it is a fair result. I think both managers will look at penalty decisions that they didn’t get but overall I think a point was a fair result. I think it was two honest teams going toe-to-toe in a good battle and it’s another point on the board.”

The best chance of Saturday’s clash fell to the home side, with Ty Ward denied at point blank range early in the second half having been put through on goal by Danny Kelly.

There was a sigh of relief for Ives, however, as a penalty claim for the visitors was turned down in the 73rd minute after the ball struck an arm in the area before it was cleared.

Marheineke added: “There were a lot of tired legs and we’ve had, as everybody has, a lot of games in a short space of time and we made four changes to the starting line up just to try and freshen it up. I think by doing that we lost just a little bit of quality that we’ve had in other games.

“Whatever you do, you have to make sure you do what you are good at and that, for us, is defending and working hard and the players have done that exceptionally well and, like I always say, if you can’t win, don’t get beat.”