ACCENTUATING the positive, both sides maintained their undefeated start to the campaign with this draw. After that, though, it would be better to draw a veil over this dreary 90 minutes.
However, Livingston manager Gary Holt stressed that it isn’t his job to please the purists.
“I think we had the better chances but to have a clean sheet and a draw with players making their debuts for us shows we have a backbone because, apparently, we’re spineless,” he said. “We’ve been labelled as cannon fodder but today showed what we are and we’re not going to move away from that because we’re comfortable in our skin.
“We’re not going to play open, expansive football; we’re going to get in your face and win second balls but, if we get into the final third, we’ll also create chances. That’s why we train at high intensity every single day and why we pushed them so hard in pre-season and we don’t apologise for that.”
It took 18 minutes before anything noteworthy happened and that was only a caution for Christian Ilic, who was booked for barging Keaghan Jacobs as they challenged for a high ball after being on the receiving end of a few robust tackles himself.
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Celtic 7 St Johnstone 0: Ryan Christie stars in emphatic winLivingston captain Alan Lithgow had claimed earlier in the week that his side would be playing more football this season but his long throw remains one of their primary weapons and there were more fouls than shots or intelligent passes as this contest became increasingly fractious.
At one point eight players were on the deck in the Motherwell six-yard box as a corner was flighted in on top of goalkeeper Mark Gillespie as rookie referee David Munro struggled to assert his authority on proceedings.
Jacobs, released by Steven Lawless, shot narrowly wide from the edge of the penalty area but this was thin gruel for anyone anticipating a feast of football. Motherwell dominated possession but couldn’t rediscover the fluency of their BetFred Cup displays which, admittedly, had come against lower-league opposition.
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Hibs ace Stevie Mallan avoided Jim Goodwin’s wrath at St Mirren but vows to spoil league debutThe first effort on target came in the 35th minute when Jermaine Hylton’s reverse pass teed up Jake Carroll but Ross Stewart produced a strong, one-handed save to divert the full-back’s venomous drive to safety.
Four minutes later Gillespie matched his rival’s effort, throwing himself to his left to fingertip away an acrobatic overhead kick from Aymen Souda, although he was awol when Declan Gallagher nodded a Scott Pittman chip off the line just before the interval.
“We will take the point as Livingston’s a difficult place to come to on that surface,” said Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson.
“Every single ball gets launched into our box, not just from throw-ins and set-plays but from anywhere on the pitch. What we didn’t do was put our own stamp on the game.”
The arid artificial surface held the ball up, undermining Motherwell’s passing game and, in truth, the second half – one fine save by Gillespie from Nicky Devlin apart – was unwatchable. Expect Livingston to feature regularly as the last game on Sportscene.
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