PARS boss James McPake said that seeing his side's perfect start to League One come to an end "hurts" but said Kelty Hearts deserved a share of the derby spoils.

Yesterday's first competitive meeting between the teams ended in a scoreless draw at New Central Park, a result which gave the home side their first point after four games following promotion last season.

READ MORE: Match report: Kelty and Pars share derby spoils

Scott McGill and Jamie Barjonas came closest for John Potter's men in the first half, while Rhys Breen, Lewis McCann and Nikolay Todorov, late on, had the best of the opportunities for the visitors.

The draw knocked the Pars off the summit after Airdrieonians, who defeated Alloa Athletic, jumped above them on goal difference, with both clubs having won three and drawn one of their opening four matches.

They meet at East End next Saturday but, speaking after yesterday's match, McPake felt a point each was the right outcome.

"We got out it what we deserved in the end," he said.

"We started the game pretty poorly. We had a couple of clear-cut chances with balls across the box, some incredible balls from Josh Edwards, getting into good areas, and he's whipping them in, but we have to be finding ways to get on the end of it.

"We always knew this was going to be a very tricky game and that's not an excuse. Far from it.

"Taking away the derby side of it, we've watched a lot of their games. What we had focused on was that a lot of the goals they were conceding were poor, but they were creating a lot of chances and just not taking them.

"They're a dangerous side who are going to get better over the season. They've come up a league and I think they deserved a point.

"I think we got out the game what we deserved.

"It hurts right now. It really does hurt because you want to win every game, you want to come and have the feeling that we've had the last few weeks, but you've got to earn it as well.

"Probably today is a fair result, and we'll dust ourselves down, we'll look over it and, as I always do, I'll analyse my team selection, my substitutions, along with my coaching staff, and we'll look ahead to next week's game now."

McPake once more was left to rue a lack of clinical finishing, but was pleased that his team secured a fourth successive shut-out.

"It was a game that we created a lot of clear-cut chances in from cross balls. We had to be more ruthless," he continued.

"To be fair, I think Kelty were decent in the game as well, so some credit goes to them.

"Wherever you go, it doesn't matter whether you're playing Kelty, who are a part-time team that have come up a division, or you're playing Ross County in the Premier Sports Cup, who are a Premier League team that finished in the top six, you've got to give everything.

"The workrate was there. I can't question the workrate, but we just couldn't find a way to put the ball in the net.

"The real bonus, or the only bonus of today, is we're still undefeated, and the big bonus is it's another clean sheet for Deniz.

"The defensive record, yeah, it's still good, but we'll always ask more going forward. We'll always ask more of that desire to put the ball in the net. Maybe desire's the wrong word; that quality to put the ball in the net when we get into the final third, because there's some great balls going in there.

"Look, it's football. You don't win every game. We dust ourselves down; as a coaching staff, we'll have a look at what we could have done better through the team selections, and then we'll go again next week."

Potter, meanwhile, was much happier with his Kelty team than after their previous meeting, which ended in a 3-0 loss to Clyde.

They remain bottom of the table but, with their first point and clean sheet on the board, it will give them a base to build on ahead of Tuesday's SPFL Trust Trophy trip to Forfar Athletic, and next Saturday's league fixture at Montrose.

"It was miles better than last week, in terms of our shape, defensive shape and our workrate," Potter said.

"I thought first half we probably slightly shaded it. I thought we had better opportunities, better areas. They had a good chance from a set piece I think, but I thought we were better first half.

"Second half, they made a few changes, they changed their shape, and they came at us. They were good second half I thought.

"We had to defend strongly, defend our box well, and we did that."

When it was put to him that their defensive organisation was good, he added: "It was.

"It's something I've been on at them for since the first day I came in. The first three games we've had, we've had it for spells of games, but not for 90 minutes. Today we probably had it for 90 minutes.

"But we need to score goals. We need to get forward as well, and I thought we did that well first half. Second half, it's hard, because they're pushing forward, they're good players, so it's difficult. We did well to get a point."