A DRAMATIC 90th-minute winner from Alan Forrest gave Livingston their first away win of the season at Tannadice last night after Gary Holt’s side came from a goal behind to leapfrog Dundee United in the table and move into the top six.
In what was a fairly lopsided display with the visitors dominating the game – United had one chance on target for the entirety of the 90 minutes – there was much for Livingston to be pleased with as they refused to be cowed despite losing a first-half goal against the run of play.
Nicky Clark’s free-kick that had given the Tannadice side a lead they scarcely deserved was not enough to dissuade a resilient Livingston from continuing to ask questions of a United side who were bereft of any kind of creativity.
“It would have been unjust not to come away with the three points but you have fight, you have to scrap, you have to battle,” said Livingston manager Gary Holt. “We had that in abundance but we also still had the composure to go and score the winning goal. When we made the break it was pleasing to see three or four bodies there.
“I knew he wasn’t offside.
“For 90 minutes we dominated the game. We were never under any pressure and I don’t think Robby had a save to make.”
Livingston set the tone within the opening minutes when a fluid move that began with Nicky Devlin and brought in Forrest and Scott Tiffoney before Scott Pittman’s effort was blocked by Mark Connolly carved out the first chance of the game.
It came to little but seemed to offer an indication of a Livingston side keen to ask questions of the hosts.
Forrest was at the heart of Livingston’s next incursion into the United defence when a clever ball over the top sent Tiffoney scurrying through only for the hosts to be relieved by the sight of the far side assistant’s flag go up. It served as a warning, however, from Gary Holt’s side who seemed intent on taking the game to United.
It would have knocked the stuffing out of the West Lothian side, then, when Nicky Clark made them pay for a breakaway that led to the opening goal. Clark’s free-kick that he arched around the Livingston wall and beyond the reach of Robby McCrorie came after Pittman had brought down Adrian Sporle, but Livingston’s grievance stemmed from the fact that Julien Serrano had been fouled in the lead up to the free-kick and was off the park receiving treatment as the goal was scored.
To Livingston’s credit they stuck to their game plan with goalkeeper Deniz Mehmet continually asked to repel a succession of opportunities as Forrest, Tiffoney and Scott Robinson all brought out saves from the goalkeeper who was back between the sticks for the first time in 13 months.
United manager Micky Mellon had said that first-choice goalkeeper Benjamin Siegrist had failed a fitness test in the build-up to the game but there were some question marks over the selection with Siegrist also believed to be attracting attention from elsewhere before the closure of Monday’s transfer window.
Despite going into the break trailing, Holt told his side they would claim the victory if they stuck to their task.
“We were a goal down at half-time but I told them if they got a goal they would get the win,” he said. “I told them to have the belief, show some bottle.
“We are good at scrapping, we are good at fighting and we have that never-say-die attitude that ensures we will go for 90 minutes.
“People say we are a kick and rush team but I think you saw tonight we can play some football. We have played really well away from home this season and we got our rewards tonight.”
Livingston got themselves level eight minutes after restart when Marvin Bartley pushed a low ball into the box for Jon Guthrie to turn into the net and find a way past the impervious Mehmet.
Not that Livingston were content to settle then for a point. It was Holt’s side who looked the most likely to add to their tally and they got it with almost the last kick of the ball.
Robinson showed the appetite to to win the ball inside United’s half and as Livvy swarmed forward, Pittman and substitute Matej Poplatnick exchanged passed before the latter squared to Forrest to tap into the net despite United’s protests of offside.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here