Livingston

Krisztian Keresztes' first goal for Dundee United secured a Scottish Premiership point after Scott Pittman's strike gave Livingston a deserved first-half lead.

Read the match report here.

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Dundee United have Kristijan Trapanovski back in contention but Isaac Pappoe (knee), Owen Stirton (ankle), Ross Graham and Max Watters (both hamstring) remain out.

Livingston could include new signing Joshua Brenet but are expected to be without Ryan McGowan, Cristian Montano, Cammy Kerr and Aidan Denholm.

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Livingston manager David Martindale is learning that "no game is the same" as his side continue to ride the rollercoaster of the Scottish top flight.

Rangers' stoppage-time winner last weekend consigned the West Lothian outfit to a fifth defeat in six outings.

But Martindale is hopeful his squad depth can help end a run of six games without a win as they travel to face Dundee United on Saturday.

"Last year, you won a game of football and it was quite easy to keep the same starting XI," he said of their season in the Championship. "We only lost five games in the league, so there was a lot of continuity and momentum coming into this season.

"One of things we're learning as a group is that no game is the same.

"Players coming in and out the team, it's not always going to be related to form, it's what I think the game needs offensively and defensively."

Livi suffered a 2-0 defeat on their last outing to Tannadice, but much has changed since May 2023.

"I'm expecting a side that's used to the demands of the Scottish Premiership," Martindale said. "He's [Jim Goodwin] brought in a lot of players, but I think they've recruited well and they've got some stability in the club now.

"We've just came up from the Championship, so there are to be some reality in there and that is what United has over us is having the past year in the Premiership.

"Everything is new to us again, so it will be a tough game. We need to start the game a lot better and we did that on Sunday.

"Performance-wise, that's the level we need to get to every week - not just some weeks."

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Livingston have signed Curacao full-back Joshua Brenet on a contract until the end of the season.

The 31-year-old, who has 12 Curacao caps, was a free agent after leaving Qatari side Al-Rayyan in the summer.

Brenet began his career at PSV and went on to make 150 appearances for the Dutch giants as well as playing two games for the Netherlands before later switching international allegiance.

He joined Hoffenheim in 2018 for a reported fee of £3m and had a loan spell with Vitesse before returning to the Netherlands to join FC Twente in 2022.

His Livingston move is subject to a work permit and international clearance.

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• No side has faced more shots in the Scottish Premiership this season than Dundee United (95, level with Dundee), while opponents Livingston have faced the highest expected goals total of any side (12.4).

• None of Dundee United's past 13 home league games have been drawn, with the Tangerines winning five and losing eight since a 0-0 stalemate with Celtic in December last season.

• Livingston have won seven of their past 11 top-flight meetings with Dundee United (D2 L2), including four of their latest six (D1 L1).

• Dundee United have only won one of their past 10 Premiership games against newly-promoted opponents (D5 L4), a 4-0 victory win over Kilmarnock in November 2022.

• After picking up four points in their opening two league games this season (W1 D1), Livingston have since earned just one point from the last 15 available (D1 L4) and could lose three consecutive Premiership matches for the first time since January 2024.

Livingston first team coach Marvin Bartley revealed "there was a bit of an argument" between the dugouts during Sunday's defeat by Rangers. (Clyde 1 via Sun, external)

Read Wednesday's Scottish gossip

Livingston first team coach Marvin Bartley revealed "there was a bit of an argument" between the dugouts during Sunday's defeat by Rangers. (Clyde 1 via Sun, external)

Former Rangers defender Arthur Numan is still upset about the red card he received when the Ibrox side lost to Sturm Graz in 2000, with the sides facing each other again in Austria this week. (Record), external

Forward Josh Gentles, 18, is confident he can score goals on loan at Raith Rovers and press his case for game time at parent club Rangers. (Courier - subscription required), external

Read Wednesday's Scottish gossip

Stuart Barrie
Fan writer

Another week, another point snatched away from us in the closing stages of a game.

It's also another week where we can take lots of positives. We gave Rangers quite a game and made them work very hard for their first win of the season.

Our goalkeeper Jerome Prior was rightly the man of the match, pulling off some fantastic saves, including a great stop from James Tavernier at Rangers' obligatory penalty.

Prior's fellow Frenchman Mo Sylla was also outstanding. The big midfielder dropped deeper into central defence and had a cracking game and notched a goal too. Even when switched to right-back, he was still assured in defending after our equaliser.

There was a fair bit of Rangers pressure on our goal towards the end, but that was nothing compared to the pressure from the away fans on their manager.

I've never seen a team score a winning goal, have some of their supporters jubilantly run on the pitch and then sing for the manager to get sacked. Bizarre stuff. Even more strange that Rangers have now overtaken us in the league with the victory.

The disappointment of dropping points again was balanced by an absolute belief in the efforts of this team to start turning these games into points on the board.

We're playing well and learning every week, so it's only a matter of time before things go our way again. We head to Dundee United this weekend with strong belief we can get a result.

Watch highlights as Rangers earn their first Premiership win of the season thanks to Max Aarons' late goal at Livingston.

Available to UK users only.

Rangers found a dramatic stoppage-time winner to finally secure their first Scottish Premiership win of the season at the sixth attempt, with substitute Max Aarons' late strike enough to down Livingston.

Read the full match report here

Have your say on Livingston's performance via this link

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Livingston manager David Martindale: "I'm not happy with the decision in the middle of the park that lead to the corner and the goal.

"I'm disappointed because I don't think the challenge on Nicolas Raskin is a foul. Yes we've got to be better from the set play but I'm really proud of the players.

"It took us to half time to get used to Rangers' shape. At half-time we told them how we needed to change and I thought in the second half we were the better team.

"I'm just really proud of the players. There's nobody on that park today that didn't put a performance in. It's about me now finding that consistency in the players because they've shown they can do it."

"I genuinely came to this thinking we could take something from the game because I know what I've got in the changing room.

"It is a learning curve as a group. This is a new team that's just come up from the Championship, I've got two 20-year-old midfielders and I don't think there will be any other team that have that profile of players.

"I thought it was one of our better performances we've had against Rangers in the last seven years and I think we're hard done by not to come away with something.

"Last week we only had ourselves to blame, and VAR, but this week I think the majority of the performance was there against a good side. I feel for the players today."

On the performance of goalkeeper Jerome Prior, the boss added: "Fantastic, I could go through everybody but I thought Jerome was one of the standouts.

"I thought Mo Sylla was incredible for us as well. Man to man all over the park, bar the two goals we could do better at those, I'm proud of the players but Jerome did that all last year with me it just wasn't on the telly.

"I'll be lucky if Jerome is still at this football club next year. on the ball he is incredible and he's a great shot stopper."

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Cammy Kerr, Cristian Montano and Aidan Denholm are set to remain sidelined for Livingston.

Rangers defender Max Aarons returns after being suspended for the Europa League defeat by Genk on Thursday night. Midfielder Lyall Cameron should be back next week and long-term absentees Rabbi Matondo (knee) and Dujon Sterling (Achilles) are in training but will not be involved any time soon.

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David Martindale is urging his Livingston players to get used to the "unforgiving nature" of the Scottish top flight.

The West Lothian club have picked up five points from their opening six Premiership matches having conceded stoppage-time winners in two of their last three matches.

Martindale is hopeful his players will learn from their mistakes as they prepare to welcome Rangers on Sunday.

"If we had got the two points from those games we would have been sitting third on the table last Saturday night," the Livi boss said.

"But that's the unforgiving nature of the Premiership. That's the fine margins at this level and I feel as a group, we need to understand that very, very quickly.

"If we play like we did against Dundee in the Championship last year, we'd have probably won 2-0 or 3-0. It's just different levels, different players and the unforgiving nature of the Premiership."

But Martindale isn't looking to change much about his side when Rangers visit.

"We'll just treat it like any other game, really," he added.

"If we were going away to Ibrox we'd potentially approach the game slightly different, but we're at home and I think we've got to kind of stick to how we want to play.

"I don't want to play here and shut up shop. I want to stick to as many of the principles that we're trying to force into the players this year, so we want to go and try and get the three points."

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David Martindale is hoping his Livingston side can capitalise on any fatigue in Rangers' ranks after their Europa League defeat by Genk on Thursday.

The Glasgow side, who sit second bottom of the Scottish Premiership after failing to win any of their five games so far, lost 1-0 at home to their Belgian visitors while playing more than half the game with 10 men.

"You're playing against a team that's played like 72 hours previous," Martindale told Sky Sports. "So I think that's always good when you've not played.

"Whether it's Europe or just a domestic game, I think it's always difficult. But they've got a big squad, there's a lot of international players within that squad, so they're capable of handling those demands."

Martindale played down any notion that this is a good time to play Rangers despite the perception that they are in turmoil under new head coach Russell Martin.

"No, not at all," he said. "I'm trying not to comment on other clubs, if I'm honest.

"I just want to come up this year and focus on Livingston. I don't really buy into the narrative that they're not in a good place.

"I think they're in a transitional period. We'll still need to be at our very, very best if we want to try and get anything from the game."

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David Martindale hopes to add Russell Martin to the list of managers who lost their first trip to Livingston, including Steven Gerrard, Neil Lennon and Ange Postecoglou, with Rangers in West Lothian on Sunday. (Record), external

Read Friday's Scottish gossip

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• Livingston are winless in their past 21 meetings with Rangers in all competitions (D2 L19) since a 1-0 league victory in September 2018. The Lions have scored just four goals in these last 21 clashes.

• Rangers have won nine of their past 10 away games at Livingston in all competitions (D1), including their latest six in a row.

• Livingston have lost three of their past four league games (D1), conceding 2+ goals in each of those defeats – including a 2-1 loss to Hearts in their last home match in the Scottish Premiership.

• Rangers are winless in six league games (D5 L1), the joint-longest run in their entire history (level with six other runs of six, most recently in December 2005). The Ibrox side have also failed to win any of their opening five matches of a league campaign for only the second time, after 1978-79 (first six).

• Rangers have the lowest xG per shot rate of any side in the Scottish Premiership so far this season (0.08), with their 66 shots resulting in an xG total of 5.6.

Stuart Barrie
Fan writer

The last-gasp penalty that condemned to us to defeat at Dundee has created controversy, stoked magnificently by Davie Martindale.

Our manager gave a trademark honest view about the incident and his frustrations at the referee.

Detractors will say it's another Premiership manager deflecting from a poor result. I think most folks will say Davie has a very good point.

I watched the 'foul' in real time and thought oh no, it's a penalty – then I viewed the replay and believed it would get overturned.

Then the ref followed the advice from the VAR to have another look and I was sure the penalty was getting binned. Somehow the ref stuck to his guns and that was that. Defeat snatched from an honourable draw. Davie's right to call this out.

Imagine if it happened to an Old Firm team? Imagine it was a title or relegation decider. Meltdown would ensue.

In the past week, high-profile mistakes have been highlighted by the Scottish FA review panel. Apologies are too late when games are turned on these decisions.

I did prefer games in the Championship when, right or wrong, you knew that was a decision or a goal.

VAR is here stay but it has to be used properly. Other sports can do it and do it quickly so why can't football?

We asked for your views on Livingston's 3-2 defeat against Dundee.

Here's what some of you said:

Del: Livi were poor. Barely laid a glove on Dundee. Could've won it amazingly, but that would've been undeserved. Still, that isn't a penalty. Livi need some fight, cohesion and desire to go and win these winnable games. David Martindale told us we'd be going for it this season, that needs to start soon.

Derek: Absolutely criminal. Deserved to be 2-0 down but did brilliantly to come back and should have won it at the death only for Dundee to break away and get a controversial penalty.

Livingston manager David Martindale was far from happy as a late penalty proved decisive at Dens Park, but what did you make of the match?

• Match report

• Have your say

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Livingston manager David Martindale tells BBC Scotland: "We've only got ourselves to blame for the first two goals in all honesty. I don't think we really started playing with any real intent, any real purpose, until we went 2-0 behind.

"We go up the park, there's an attacking phase, we've got to score. We've got to score to make it 3-2. Anyway, we don't.

"Then there's the attacking phase. Danny Wilson's in the box, he goes to tackle, half pulls out the tackle, so he's planted his foot.

"The contact's initiated by the Dundee player. At the time, in real time, I thought it looked like a pen, but I watched it back and I go, 'there's no chance that's a pen'.

"The VAR officials then send a referee to the monitor, which tells me there's two people looking at footage with different camera angles, saying, 'you might have made a mistake here, I think you'd better go and look at the monitor'.

"He looks at the monitor and then says, no, it's a pen. I said to the referee after the game, 'you'd better hope you've got that right'.

"This can't keep happening. It can't. It's me that's affected this week, it'll be somebody else next week. Rangers, Kilmarnock, Celtic benefit, Hearts benefit, it can't keep happening.

"We're paying millions of pounds for people to make decisions using footage. They seem to still be getting it wrong.

"It's really hard sitting here as a manager, that's the frustrating aspect. In all honesty, we should be coming away from here with a point, in my opinion.

"When you're using the footage, how are we getting decisions wrong when we're actually looking at these camera angles? That's the part I don't understand. I can't get my head round it, I'm perplexed, I genuinely am perplexed at how we're getting this wrong.

"I think it comes down to the individuals who are in charge of making these decisions, I don't think that's Willie [Collum]'s fault.

"It's difficult to see if it's actually making the game better."

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Dundee midfielder Yan Dhanda drops out through suspension following his red card against Motherwell.

Paul Digby (calf) remains out and Mexico Under-20 international Cesar Garza is on international duty. Charlie Reilly is back in contention after a broken collarbone.

Shane Blaney and Jeremy Bokila have returned to training and will be assessed ahead of Livi's trip to Tayside. Cammy Kerr, Cristian Montano and Aidan Denholm remain sidelined.

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Mahamadou Susoho says he signed with Livingston to "show everyone" his abilities, just two years after making his Champions League debut for Manchester City.

The 20-year-old midfielder, born in Barcelona, joined City's academy in 2017 from Spanish side Espanyol.

And six years later he came off the bench to make his debut in a Champions League tie against Red Star Belgrade, helping Pep Guardiola's side to a 3–2 away win.

Ahead of the trip to Dundee on Saturday, Susoho said: "It was a dream come true, obviously playing Champions League as well, against Red Star Belgrade.

"It was a very proud moment for me, my family, and everyone that helped me growing up. It's what many players dream of so I was blessed.

"When I walked into the stadium, it was loud, it was big, the atmosphere. I've never been in anything like it before. When I got a shout to get warmed up and come on, the butterflies were in my belly, but when I came on I think I did all right.

"Now I am just building myself back up and hopefully get more chances at City or somewhere else. That's football. You never know in football, you've got to be ready for any challenge."

The Spain youth international spent last season on loan at Peterborough and made the move to Livingston on deadline day, before coming on for his debut as a substitute against Aberdeen in the goalless draw at Pittodrie on Saturday.

He added: "I had quite a few clubs interested. I got a call from my agent and had a Zoom call with the manager, and he convinced me to come up with Livingston.

"I moved to play games, and that's what I need because I had a disruptive couple of seasons with injuries.

"The manager gave me the confidence of coming here to play a lot of games. He said there's a new challenge, different intensity compared to football in League One in England. He said that I'm going to play in the number six role, which is where I've been playing in the last few years.

"I've never been afraid of challenges. I came here to show everyone I can play."