Livingston ease past Ross County to reach Scottish League Cup semi-finals
- Published
Craig Sibbald scored Livingston's opener inside four minutes
Livingston will face St Mirren in the Scottish League Cup semi-finals after beating Ross County to reach the last four for the first time in 14 years.
Craig Sibbald struck Livingston's early opener and Alan Forrest nodded their second before half-time to put the hosts in control.
It was a fourth win out of four for David Martindale as interim manager.
County, who had beaten over holders Celtic in the previous round, had two penalty claims turned down.
Livingston will take on St Mirren at Hampden on 23 or 24 January, with St Johnstone facing Hibernian in the other last-four tie.
The home side started the brighter and, within the opening 90 seconds, County keeper Ross Laidlaw had to save a Josh Mullin free-kick.
His clean sheet lasted just three minutes, though, as Livingston took the lead in controversial circumstances.
Sibbald latched on to a pass from Scott Robinson, who looked offside. Andrew McWilliam raised his flag but Steven McLean waved play on as the ball had been played backwards by Regan Charles-Cook.
Despite the protests of the visiting players, the goal was allowed to stand.
Charles-Cook had to be replaced after 20 minutes with a hamstring injury with Coll Donaldson the replacement and County were soon two behind.
Callum Morris had an attempt at a clearance from the bye-line but only succeeded in hitting the ball off the advancing Robinson, which deflected the ball on to the head of Forrest for a simple finish.
County had a mountain to climb and may have been unlucky not to be awarded a penalty when it appeared that Harry Paton had his ankles clipped by Scott Pittman.
The second half started as the first ended, with both sides having a real go. Robinson came close to a third for the home side when his effort rattled the County crossbar with Laidlaw stranded on his line.
McLean again turned down a penalty claim when a Ross Stewart header appeared to come off the arm of Nicky Devlin as the visitors tried desperately to claw their way back into contention.
But Livingston were always dangerous and Julien Serrano hammered a drive off the base of a County post with Laidlaw beaten.
They visitors pushed Livingston all the way, but when Iain Vigurs free-kick from 25 yards out was easily saved by Stryjek with five minutes left, any chance of a County comeback was gone.
Livingston interim manager David Martindale: "We did what we had to do. Getting through's the most important thing.
"The boys are cheering they got St Mirren, St Mirren will be cheering that they got Livingston. Hopefully, it's going to lead to a smaller team picking up a trophy this year."
Ross County manager Stuart Kettlewell: "It's obviously a kick in the guts; a really frustrating night. There were incidents that just aren't falling for us. Incidents that can swing the game in your favour.
"The players have given me everything. The second goal's the one moment where we let ourselves down. We need to pick ourselves up, we need to fight on, we need to go again."
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