THERE was a time, probably when they were ploughing away in Scotland’s bottom tier in front of a man and his dog, that mooting the idea of Livingston playing European football would have had you locked up in the nearest asylum. No longer.
At the end of a pulsating, breathless 90 minutes of football, Livingston had seen off one of their more fancied rivals for that holy grail of fourth spot and sat ahead of Dundee United, Aberdeen, Motherwell and Hibernian in the table.
A late Ryan Edwards own-goal was the difference, Scott Pittman cancelling out Liam Smith’s early opener, and the joy on the fans’ faces as they headed out into the West Lothian night told the story. Could they do it? There's no reason why not.
It was 17 years since Dundee United had last won in the top flight at Livi and, buoyed by a vocal away support, they looked in the mood to put that record to bed.
When Tony Watt drifted to the left with barely two minutes on the clock, David Martindale was still chewing over Tam Courts’ tactical switch - Calum Butcher and Kieran Freeman in from the start - and the shock was enough to ruffle the Lions.
Watt jinked inside Nicky Devlin, poked the ball across and ran away in delight as Smith beat his man to fire beyond Max Stryjek.
In a clash between two teams with European ambitions, Livi had blinked first but United’s joy was short-lived. Injury ensured Watt’s race had been run not much later - his presence sorely lacking for the rest of the night - and soon Martindale’s team were level.
They were still struggling to adjust to the combustible United set-up when Stryjek finally bowed to the home supporters' howls and rushed a kick. His almighty hoof had just enough on it to reach Bruce Anderson, who eased away from Charlie Mulgrew and picked out Scott Pittman. The finish, his second in a matter of days against the city of Dundee, was emphatic.
Now it was the visitors’ turn to look rattled. Ross Graham had the face of a man who’d just been asked to go 10 rounds with Ali in his pomp whenever Joel Nouble touched the ball, Anderson continued to pull at Mulgrew’s threads and Alan Forrest so nearly found Benjamin Siegrist’s bottom corner after a slalom through the United backline.
The Livi waves were relentless but United, somehow, held firm until the break. Anderson twice thought he’d finally broken their resolve inside five second-half minutes, only for Siegrist to deny him on the first effort and the second to flash wide.
Rather than rousing his troops, Courts’ half-time words had seemed to have the opposite effect and took that as a sign to call on the cavalry. As he passed on the task of stopping the Nouble steam train in its tracks to Scott McMann, Graham would have been forgiven for allowing himself a smile.
It was Forrest, though, who continued to wreak havoc. Twice the diminutive winger was denied the goal his performance deserved by Siegrist, his finger alone holding back the dam.
United, despite going close through Nicky Clark and Marc McNulty, looked increasingly happy to settle for a fifth draw in six. The late drama, as Edwards prodded home Devlin's cross, denied them it.
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