STEVIE Lawless produced one of the best strikes of the season to take Livingston to the lofty position of joint second – and left his manager eating his words.

New Livingston boss Gary Holt had screamed at Lawless to take a touch and put in a cross when the ball dropped to the winger on the edge of the Hamilton box in just three minutes.

However, Lawless had other ideas and struck a sensational left-foot volley into the top-left corner to make it three wins in a row for Holt since he replaced Kenny Miller.

Holt said: “I was actually telling him ‘go beyond, go beyond’ as the ball came out to him, then he decided to hit it.

“I guess he shouldn’t listen to me! It’s a hell of a finish and wee Stevie has got that in his locker. It was fitting that goal won the game.

“We are trying to use Stevie in a more attacking sense rather than a defensive one because he has the qualities to hurt the opposition.

“It’s pleasing that he’s come in, taken everything on board and scored a good goal.”

Livingston have taken 10 points from five games, but Holt is not getting carried away with Hearts and Rangers coming up.

He said: “I certainly know we’ll lose games as well as win them. Yes, it’s great to have three wins in a row but we have 33 to go.”

Declan Gallagher hit the post with a header, Dolly Menga missed from 10 yards and Scott Pittman came close too for Livi while Hamilton had no shots on target at all as they slumped to a fourth defeat of the season.

Hamilton boss Martin Canning said: “We lacked that spark, that creativity in the final third.

“We have got to do better than that as an attacking team. We couldn’t hold the ball up and link the game which was disappointing.

“Ultimately we have lost the game to a fantastic finish but in terms of performance we didn’t do enough to take anything from the game.”