Livingston 2-1 Dundee United: United's survival hopes dealt blow with Livi loss
- Published
Bruce Anderson punishes Mark Birighitti after he and Loick Ayina got into a muddle
Dundee United's Scottish Premiership survival hopes took another dent as they lost at Livingston to stay three points from safety with two games left.
Bruce Anderson gave the hosts an early lead after a defensive calamity between Mark Birighitti and Loick Ayina, before Ian Harkes' volleyed equaliser.
But James Penrice produced a superb strike in the second half to give Livingston only their third win in 10 games.
It was a grievous blow for Jim Goodwin's struggling side, albeit they welcome Kilmarnock on Wednesday knowing victory would lift them above their visitors on goal difference.
"I sound like a broken record but I can't legislate for the goals we've conceded again," Goodwin said.
"We've given ourselves a mountain to climb, similar to last weekend. Today is just poor decision making and giving Livingston a goal head start.
"We can't keep having to score two or three goals to take something from the game. It's just not feasible. Honestly, four of the goals we've conceded lately are really, really poor. We just need to get back to basics."
United had everything to play for - and Livingston came into this in terrible form, with nothing to play for - but the visitors started poorly.
After 10 minutes, Birighitti and Ayina got into a fankle dealing with a simple long ball, allowing Anderson to ghost in and confidently curl the ball into an empty net from out wide.
David Martindale's side thought they had a second when Luiyi de Lucas stretched to poke home at the back-post following a free-kick, but VAR official Grant Irvine saw a handball in the build-up.
United were missing the presence of Steven Fletcher up top, but replacement Rory MacLeod set up the equaliser with his endeavour.
With the ball bouncing out for a goal-kick, he hooked it over his shoulder when others might have given up on it. The ball bobbled around before dropping towards Harkes, who volleyed it sweetly into the net from the edge of the area.
Stephen Kelly and Cristian Montano threatened to re-establish Livingston's lead, but both efforts went inches over the bar.
United were shaky whenever Livingston came forward and finally dropped to the canvas when Charlie Mulgrew shelled a ball into the sky instead of up the pitch.
That allowed Montano to thunder into an aerial challenge and eventually ship the ball wide to Penrice, with the deputising winger volleying across the keeper and into the net.
With survival on the line, Goodwin turned to his youngsters with Miller Thomson, Matthew Cudjoe and Kai Fotheringham all coming on but they could not muster a fightback.
Fellow sub Peter Pawlett went closest, testing Shamal George from four yards out when he really he should have scored.
Instead, United went down to 10 men when Aziz Behich was booked twice in the space of 10 minutes - both for dissent. He will now miss Wednesday's epic with Kilmarnock.
Player of the match - Bruce Anderson (Livingston)
David Martindale's favourite strikes again. The Livi gaffer loves his wee striker and it's easy to see why.
United whimper to defeat as relegation looms - analysis
The bubble has officially burst. With three wins on the spin heading into the split, it looked like United might be the ones to pull themselves out of danger.
Instead they've lost three from three, and Goodwin has just two games to avoid disaster. Right now, his side are careering towards the edge of the cliff with no sign of slowing down.
Livingston were in the worst form in the bottom six before today. This game would have been targeted as the turning point.
Instead, United gave themselves far too much to do with more disastrous defending. Towards full-time they threw everything forward but goalkeeper George wasn't flustered at any point.
What they said
Livingston boss David Martindale: "I thought we defended our final third, especially our 18, fantastically well. Shamal George has made a big save. Kept us in the game, kept us with three points as opposed to maybe one.
"The personnel that came on the park were very, very good. Tom Parkes was incredible. Jamie Brandon brought real energy. To a man, they were very, very good."
Dundee United manager Jim Goodwin: "We spoke about it all week, showed them footage of what Livingston do. We know what they do. I'd have preferred the goalkeeper to stay and Loick Aynia to deal with it.
"The reaction was good. We controlled the game after that and scored a good goal of our own. The second goal is a catalogue of errors. A poor clearance, there's no cover on the centre-half."
What next?
Livingston host Motherwell on Wednesday, while Dundee United welcome Kilmarnock to Tannadice (both 19:45 BST).