Livingston sent Gary Holt a get well gift of all three points after holding off a St Mirren comeback yesterday afternoon.

There was a bit of mystery surrounding the absence of Holt with suggestions that a weight training accident was the cause of an injury that has hospitalized him until Monday but in any case his side fared not too badly without him.

“Hopefully that result has made him feel a bit better,” said Livingston assistant Davie Martindale. “The performance was great. I think on chances created we probably deserved to win the game but St Mirren put us under a lot of pressure in the second half. They’re a different team this year with a lot of resilience.

“But the fundamentals that we’re built on like hard work and putting our bodies on the line, we’re resilient ourselves. We’re brave on the ball. I thought the boys were fantastic. It’s a huge three points. Nothing really changed today to be honest. Me and Holty speak all the time. So we had a good idea of what the team would be. We had four injuries on Thursday morning so there was only so much we could do. The team kind of picked itself.”

A goal in each half from Alan Lithgow and Lyndon Dykes had put the Lothian side firmly in the ascendancy but to be fair to Jim Goodwin’s St Mirren side they stuck to their task admirably and on another day their second-half pressure would have been rewarded with a point to take back to Paisley.

Kyle Magennis had pulled them back into the game and there were ample opportunities for them to find the second that would have rescued a point. Indeed, the game finished with St Mirren camped in Livingston’s half, albeit that the hosts could well have killed the game off with a late effort on the counter-attack when substitute Jack Stobbs kneed an awkward effort off the top of the crossbar.

Goodwin was left to applaud his side’s character and effort while lamenting their sloppiness defensively.

“I couldn't say we lost the game because of a lack of fight or a lack of effort but the goals we conceded were poor,” he said. “We took a lot of plaudits in our last three league games for how resilient and hard to beat we were and we did not give a great deal away. But that initial corner, for Lithgow to be free in our six-yard box to have a free header is unacceptable. 

"I also felt that they got their second against the run of play but from there it was always going to be an uphill task. But we got the goal and Kyle does brilliantly for the goal and we had plenty of time left on the clock to go and get an equaliser but it was just one of those afternoons.”