Livingston

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Jamie Brandon says Livingston made it "too easy" for Hearts to stage a first-half comeback in their defeat at Tynecastle.

The defender also points to the depleted West Lothian squad due to numerous injuries, while focus turns to the final five games of the season.

"We started the game well and pressed them high and managed to get good opportunities from that," Brandon told club media. "Stephen Kelly showed his quality was two great finishes.

"I think it's too easy for them to get back into the game. We give away the goals and it's disappointing.

"We've came here and executed the game plan well for 20 minutes. After we goal two goals up, we drop off a bit and give them too much space.

"They're a good team, they're sitting third in the league, and if you give them space and time they're going to punish you. That's what happened.

"There's obviously quite a few boys injured just now, the squad's light. It limits what the gaffer can do if things aren't going right in a game.

"We need to go and win as many games as we can [in the split]. We'll be playing the teams round about us and picking up points is ultimately what we need to do."

Pat Nevin and Richard Foster join Liam McLeod to pick over the bones of another incredible weekend of Scottish football drama.

They look back on Ross County’s historic victory over Rangers and discuss what impact it could have at both ends of the table.

They also assess the jobs done by Tony Docherty and Nick Montgomery as Dundee secure their place in the top 6 at the expense of Hibs and Motherwell.

Listen to today's episode of the Scottish Football Podcast here.

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Livingston boss David Martindale pleaded for common sense to rule after Tete Yengi's bizarre red card against Hearts.

Having been booked while playing, Yengi was the substituted and appeared frustrated with his own performance as he was taken off.

Referee Colin Steven took umbrage with the Australian's reaction, and subsequently showed him a second yellow despite the fact he'd left the field.

"The kid comes off park frustrated, he’s kicked one of our bottles," Martindale explained.

“He’s kicked it into our dugout, I just think there has to be a bit of common sense applied. There is no explanation, you are not allowed to do it."

Yengi, who has become a key player for Livi since his January arrival, will now miss the first game of Livingston's post-split fixtures.

“You are bottom of the league, fighting for survival, you are 2-0 up and losing 4-2, he gets substituted and I think common sense has to be applied," Martindale added.

“It’s not the way I want the game to go. I’m not saying what he’s done is right but I think you need to give him some leeway. We’re down to the bare bones as it is so he’s let us down as well.

“If that bottle had gone into the fans, book him all day long, if it had gone into the Hearts technical area, book him.”

Were you at Tynecastle or following the match from home? Either way, we want your views on the game – have your say here.

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Livingston manager David Martindale: "I think you saw the good and bad of Livingston this season.

"We started the game really well, really aggressive in the press. We forced them into mistakes and scored two cracking goals. We make a chance we should do better with with big Tete [Yengi].

"Then you see the ugly side if I'm honest. It's been the downfall all season. They work two good goals, I'll give them two. We allow the cross in and drop our runners.

"But there's also two individual mistakes in there. You strip the game back and we've given them two goals.

"The chances we created in the game, I think we created the better ones when you take out our two individual errors.

"I promise you I'm not treating any game different. I'm coming in to win the next game. I don't get out my bed to get beat.

"These next five games, win, lose or draw I will approach every game the same and make sure I've got enough players behind me with the same mindset.

"Can we go an win the five games? I think we can. Is it a big ask? Of course it is, I'm not delusional. But we need to go and try to win games and we've been trying from match day one. But we've not been good enough."

Thomas Duncan, BBC Sport Scotland

This was a complete sickener for David Martindale and Livingston, who made the perfect start in their bid to close to six points of Ross County ahead of the Staggies' meeting with Rangers on Sunday.

But their defensive issues cost them dearly after they started ferociously and caught out sleepy Hearts.

Two of Hearts' goals were gifts, with Ayo Obileye completely missing a simple defensive header for the second, and Devlin's awful backpass causing the penalty.

The fact three of them were Hearts players getting a free strike on goal from around the six-yard box will infuriate Martindale. But it's no surprise given Livingston have the worst defensive record in the league.

The fiery Livi boss will fight until relegation is confirmed, but it looks a case of when rather than if. Their frustration was summed up by striker Tete Yengi, who was shown a second yellow card for some dissent and a furious reaction once replaced.

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It's just one change for a depleted Livingston after last week's goalless draw with Aberdeen.

Jason Holt comes into midfield as Steven Bradley drops to the bench.

James Penrice, Andrew Shinnie, Joel Nouble and Cristian Montano are all still missing so Livingston name just five substitutes.

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Hearts will have Lawrence Shankland and Beni Baningime back from illness and Calem Nieuwenhof hopes to recover from a hamstring injury in time. Finlay Pollock is back in training while Craig Halkett and Peter Haring (both knee) and Liam Boyce (hamstring) remain out.

Livingston boss David Martindale is unlikely to be able to fill the bench again with the likes of James Penrice (hip), Andrew Shinnie (groin), Joel Nouble (ankle) and Cristian Montano (hamstring) struggling.

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Jason Holt says the Livingston squad are fully aware that relegation from the top flight would result in job losses at the club.

David Martindale's side require an incredible comeback to beat the drop, trailing 11th-placed Ross County by nine points with six games to go.

“We know with the situation we are in, it is going to be extremely difficult, looking at the game so far this season," Holt said.

“But I have a a lot of belief in the squad, this is my fourth season here and that has been one of the biggest strengths in this squad, the fight in the team and that will continue.

“We know there is massive pressure, we all know the situation we find ourselves in, the prospect of potentially going down is not great, people lose jobs, we certainly don’t want that to happen so there is big pressure on us and expectation to keep the club in the league.

“It is extremely difficult to get that swing in points but while it is mathematically possible then the fight continues.”

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Why should Scottish football fans care about Czech side Viktoria Plzen drawing with Italian heavyweights Fiorentina in the Europa Conference League?

The result on Thursday night has serious consequences for the Premiership, with the Czech Republic now having leapfrogged Scotland in the coefficient standings.

Not only will the winners of the top flight no longer gain automatic qualification to the Champions League from 2025/26, but there's also a knock on effect for those finishing further down the table.

Here's everything you need to know.

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• Hearts lost their first two home games against Livingston in the Scottish top-flight back in 2001-02, but are unbeaten in 13 matches against them since (W7 D6).

• A home victory in September 2022 is Livingston's only win in their last 11 league games against Hearts. They have lost both league meetings between the sides this season.

• Hearts are unbeaten in eight home league games (W5 D3). This is their longest unbeaten home run in the Scottish Premiership since November 2021 (10).

• Livingston are winless in their last 14 away league games (D3 L11). Only from September 2018 to August 2019 (18) have they had a longer winless run on their travels in the top-flight.

• Only Dundee (26y 66d) have a younger average starting XI age than Hearts (26y 67d) in the Scottish Premiership this season, whilst Livingston have the oldest (28y 218d).

Livingston are away to Hearts on Saturday in the Scottish Premiership, looking to keep their faint survival hopes alive.

Who would you like to see start at Tynecastle? Choose your Livingston XI here.

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David Martindale says “the belief is still there” in his Livingston side as they aim to pull off a remarkable relegation escape.

The West Lothian club are currently nine points adrift at the foot of the Premiership with six games to play.

A positive result away to Hearts on Saturday, coupled with defeat for Ross County at home to Rangers on Sunday, would reduce the gap further heading into the post-split fixtures.

Martindale has refused to “put too much emphasis” on other teams' outcomes, instead only looking “at ourselves and what we can affect”.

"I have to put all my energy and positivity into how we go to Tynecastle," he adds. "How we affect that game and how we pick points up.

"That's where my main focus lies. We need to go out and win the next game of football.

"It's going to be a big ask to stay in the league but we can. But I don't want to sound delusional because I know how challenging this season has been for everyone."

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Livingston have announced a new "six-figure" sponsorship deal with local taxi hire firm Home of the Set Fare.

The deal will see Almondvale rebranded as the 'Home of the Set Fare Arena' for next season, after the previous deal with Tony Macaroni came to an end.

"This really is a fantastic bit of business for the club," chief executive Dave Black said. "I’m absolutely delighted to be able to announce Home of the Set Fare as our new stadium naming rights partner ahead of the 2024-25 season.

“The enthusiasm from their side was fantastic and after doing a tour of the stadium and seeing what we had to offer, we were able to get this signed off and start to make plans for the new season."

Stuart Barrie
Fan writer

All the pundits tipped a goalless draw for Livingston's clash meeting with Aberdeen at the weekend, and for the first time this season we did not disappoint.

There was plenty of effort on show, but not the quality to match in a drab affair. The medical staff put in a shift too with quite a few injuries, which shows the application I suppose.

Frankly, it was a poor game between two poor teams. The only crumb of comfort for me is that we didn’t spend millions on our squad like Aberdeen have.

A concern for me was how light the bench looked. We barely filled it and had many first-team regulars in the stand. I’m hoping that's only a temporary thing and some of the players haven’t chucked it.

There is likely to be a mass exodus when we inevitably go down. We’re low on resources as it is and even against Championship teams our budget is low.

We can only hope the manager is scouring YouTube now and finding the next group of gems to mould into a Livi team that will fight its way back next season.

On today's episode of the Scottish Football Podcast, Liam McLeod is joined by Kenny Miller and Alan Stubbs.

They discuss Sunday's Old Firm thriller and look back on an action-packed Saturday in the Scottish Premiership.

Listen to the episode in full here.

The Sportscene team assess whether Richard Jensen should have been sent off for his high boot on Tete Yengi.

(Available to UK users only)