Livingston

Sean Kelly hopes the "volatile" nature of the bottom six will give Livingston a chance of survival - after admitting they deserve to be at the foot of the table.

The Lions are currently seven points behind 11th-placed Ross County, having won just one of their last 20 Premiership matches.

“I think the size of the task speaks for itself, it’s pretty obvious for all to see. It’s obviously going to be difficult,” he said ahead of this weekend's trip to St Johnstone.

“We just need to take it a game it a time and look to close the gap as much as possible, especially going into the split because we know after the split, things can be quite volatile when you’re playing the teams round about you.

“We just need to get a bit closer before the split comes."

Livingston's 1-0 win over St Mirren last month was the side's last league points, and Kelly admitted Livingston's position at the foot of the table was earned.

“I think there are times this season when you can pick out certain moments and certain games when people might think ‘Livi have done alright’ but in the main, the league table doesn’t lie,” said the defender.

“Performances as a whole, over the course of a full game, have ultimately not been good enough.”

Image source, SNS

Image source, SNS

We offered you the chance to submit questions to one of our Sportscene pundits.

Q: Would you get rid of VAR?

I don’t envisage Scotland making a drastic call about VAR while other nations still operate with it. We need to accept it’s here to stay.

Within football there has to be an element of human error, players make mistakes, but the fact we’ve seen a big increase in errors means there’s clear improvement required.

That goes beyond Scottish football, though, you see that all over the place. What we need to do here is continue to upskill the referees. Their performances need to improve and there needs to be more accountability.

These incorrect decisions are very costly for clubs. Recognising an error is okay, but you can’t be offering out apologies every week.

Image source, SNS

We offered you the chance to submit questions to one of our Sportscene pundits.

Q: How do you see the relegation fight unfolding?

The beauty of the split means every game will have a purpose.

With Bojan Miovski, Aberdeen will have enough because they have the ability to score goals.

Motherwell come into that same category with the additions they’ve made and the form of Theo Bair and Blair Spittal.

I think Livingston will put up a fight but will ultimately go down automatically. That leaves Ross County and St Johnstone to fight it out to avoid the play-off.

Despite going in front after just three minutes against Motherwell on Wednesday night, it was another disappointment for David Martindale's Livingston as their task of staying in the top flight gets even tougher.

What should Marindale do with his team for Saturday's trip to face St Johnstone?

Pick your starting line-up here.

Andy Burke
BBC Sport Scotland

Image source, SNS

When you talk to David Martindale after a football match, one thing you can guarantee whether his team has won, lost or drawn, is unvarnished honesty.

“We’re really fragile at this point, aren’t we?”, he admitted after the damaging home defeat to Motherwell. It’s not a term any manager wants to be using to describe his team, particularly not when fighting against relegation.

The emotion was etched all over the manager in the aftermath of the game, one in which Livingston started well, got themselves in front then proceeded to shrink into their shells. “Passive” as Martindale described them.

They have fallen behind in recent matches against Partick Thistle and Ross County and there has been a reaction, but that was nowhere to be seen here. No late salvo, no kitchen sink thrown at Motherwell, just the slow descent of a team who looked powerless to halt the slide towards its inevitable fate.

You could say the same in a wider sense about Livi’s battle against the drop as they sit seven points adrift at the bottom with 10 games remaining, but Martindale is not one for standing back and just letting the chips fall where they may.

“We need to keep swinging, we need to keep fighting. We need to believe and we need our fortunes to change very quickly.”

If there is to be any hope of a remarkable escape, the catalyst has to come at St Johnstone on Saturday.

Livingston fans, have you got any questions for one of our Sportscene pundits after that disappointing defeat to Motherwell?

On the game or the season as a whole, send them over via this link.

Livingston manager David Martindale: "The start of the second half we lost an early goal and we are really fragile at that point.

"I think the game plan worked ok in the first half, we then had two or three half decent counters.

"In the second half we changed the shape slightly, didn’t stop a cross in the wide area, they get in, we don’t track the runner and they score. From that point onwards we looked really fragile and I have got to take responsibility for that.

"A second goal would have helped but I don’t think we posed enough of an attacking threat in the second half.

"We are even more adrift now, the hole we are in gets a wee bit bigger. I am not going to stop fighting, I will be here until matchday 38 and I will make sure my players do the same."

Image source, SNS

Andy Burke
BBC Sport Scotland

Livingston’s battle against the drop is looking more and more like a lost cause. They made the perfect start here through Teti Yengi’s early opener, but aside from a couple of half-chances in the first-half, they disappeared into their shell.

They looked fairly comfortable in the opening half-hour when defending that lead, but they seemed powerless to change things up when the tide turned in Motherwell’s favour.

Seven points adrift of Ross County having played a game more and just 10 games to go, Livi really are staring down the barrel now.

Image source, SNS

Livingston hope to welcome James Penrice back after injury, while Steven Bradley and goalkeeper Michael McGovern are back in contention. Shaun Donnellan and Scott Pittman are both unlikely to be fit, while goalkeeper Jack Hamilton still has a groin injury.

Motherwell have lost Harry Paton to a serious ankle injury to join Andy Halliday, Barry Maguire, Adam Montgomery and Callum Slattery on the sidelines.

Image source, SNS

Image source, SNS

• Livingston have won just one of their last 12 meetings with Motherwell in the Scottish Premiership (D4 L7), a 2-0 home win earlier this season with the Steelmen playing the entire second half with 10 men.

• Following a 3-1 home win in December, Motherwell are aiming to win back-to-back league games against Livingston for the first time since four straight such wins ending in December 2021.

• Livingston ended a run of eight home league games without a win when beating St. Mirren last time out at the Tony Macaroni Arena (1-0), and will now be aiming to win back-to-back home games in the Scottish Premiership for the first time since May 2023 (three in a row).

• Motherwell are winless in their last 11 away games in the Scottish Premiership (D6 L5), last going longer without victory on the road in the top-flight between August 2002 and August 2003 (18 in a row).

• Livingston are winless in their last 11 midweek (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) fixtures in the Scottish Premiership (D5 L6) since a 2-1 home win over Aberdeen in November 2022.

Image source, SNS

Michael Devlin says Livingston have to capitalise on improved performances if they are to avoid relegation this season.

The West Lothian side sit bottom of the Scottish Premiership, six points behind Ross County, as they prepare to face Motherwell on Wednesday night

“I think there were periods earlier in the season when it was tough, we weren’t getting points, we weren’t scoring goals and performances weren’t where they needed to be, but I think more recently they have been better," the Livi captain said.

“That feeling of knowing we’re not too far away gives us a bit of confidence and belief, but we are running out of opportunities.

"We can’t continue to say performances are better when we are not getting results.

“It would be naive to think we don’t have an eye on how cut adrift we are. We need to stay as close as possible to whoever is 11th and then we go and play all of the teams round about us after the split.

“We’ve probably been a bit lucky that other teams have stalled a bit in their results and they’ve not pulled away. We’ve still got an opportunity if we can go on a run and pick up a few wins.

“After beating St Mirren [earlier this month], if we’d managed to go on and win the next two or three games after that against the teams closest to us, we could have pulled ourselves right back into the pack and maybe have pulled in a couple of other teams that felt they were far enough away from us.

“We didn’t manage to do that on Saturday but we still have another opportunity to go and pick up three points against another team that are not too far away from us [Motherwell].”

Stuart Barrie
Fan writer

They say it’s not over until a certain lady sings, and although we haven’t heard a note yet, she’s definitely doing vocal warm-up exercises. Saturday's clash with Ross County was a big, big game. There were three huge points at stake that could have changed our season and got us back on level terms with County.

Going into the basement battle with the Dingwall side we had won our last two games and there was a sense of momentum. For the first time in a long time we even had a couple of supporters buses making the long trip up the A9.

The game got off to the worst start. We have made some calamitous mistakes in defence this season but Mo Sangare’s howler must top that league of shame. Their second goal was a cracker though, and we looked dead and buried at half-time.

Whatever was said during the interval worked. Bringing on Bruce Anderson had a huge bearing on the game with the wee striker scoring twice. I thought we had fought back brilliantly to take a point - not the best result but not the worst either.

We then somehow managed to grab defeat from the jaws of getting at least a point. You could tell the players were gutted; we’re all gutted. We’re only six points behind County, the same as we were a couple of weeks ago but we’re running out of games to get the points we need. Its looking grim.

It’s (another) tough task to pick ourselves up from (another) defeat but the whole club, the staff, the players and especially the supporters need to make sure we get a win against Motherwell later this week. Anything else and that certain lady will be singing for sure.

Livingston's mini-revival ended with a late goal in a 3-2 loss to Ross County that means the West Lothian side are six points adrift of the Dingwall side at the bottom of the Scottish Premiership.

Now, on Wednesday, they host a Motherwell outfit without a win in four outings but who will themselves feel aggrieved to have lost to reigning champions Celtic thanks to two late goals at Fir Park on Sunday.

Who would you like to see in your Livi starting XI? Pick your team here.

Image source, BBC Sport

Image source, BBC/SNS

I sensed a change in David Martindale this weekend. Ahead of kick-off, you could see he was desperate for the game to start.

Before the relegation rivals met, I said it would be vitally important that Ross County picked up the three points and put Livingston to bed. However, with the way the game unfolded, I'm not sure it's a closed case.

They’ve got absolutely huge games to come against Motherwell and then St Johnstone. Now, Ross County are only two points behind the Perth Saints with a game in hand.

This next week is going to be absolutely huge for all three clubs at the bottom of the relegation tussle.

Despite losing that big game in the Highlands, I wouldn’t write Livingston off just yet. I saw a bit of the old Livi – and a bit of the old Martindale – on Saturday afternoon.

That’s not to say they’re going to survive, but even after defeat, I’m just not as certain as I was two weeks ago. It should be a fascinating conclusion to the season.

Michael Stewart was speaking to BBC Scotland's Sean McGill

Image source, SNS

Former Scotland defender Lee McCulloch admits Livingston's defeat to relegation rivals Ross County is a big blow in their survival hopes.

The West Lothian side had mounted a comeback to peg Don Cowie's men back from two goals down, but a late Josh Sims winner caused heartbreak in the Highlands.

Despite avoiding automatic relegation looking increasingly unlikely, McCulloch fully expects David Martindale to keep fighting until the very end.

"That was a big one, a real big one," he told BBC's Scottish Football Podcast.

"The week before beating St. Mirren was their first one in 17. It was an amazing stat.

"You're thinking if they can go and get a result at Ross County, they'll be dragging them into the relegation battle, but it just wasn't to be.

"The goals they lost were soft, albeit Brophy's second goal was an unbelievable finish.

"He'll be very disappointed, but they'll keep fighting until it's mathematically impossible to stay up."

Image source, SNS

Brian McLauchlin, BBC Sport Scotland

David Martindale says he is unfazed by pundits' predictions that his Livingston side are already destined for the drop.

The West Lothian side are once again six points adrift at the bottom of the Premiership after their weekend defeat to 11th-placed Ross County, who also have a game in hand.

But the Livi boss insists his team will continue to fight to stay in the top flight, a feat that would taste "a wee bit sweeter" given how some have written off their chances.

“I’ve had it from matchday one since the first game in the Premiership. It’s been the same story. That was six years ago. I’ve been pretty vocal that a broken clock is right twice a day so if that was to happen then you will have all these media pundits saying ‘I told you so.’

“Where were their predictions for the five years previously? It doesn’t really bother me. Will it feel that wee bit sweeter if we can keep Livingston in the Premiership? Probably, yes.

“We have a chance to get it back in Wednesday night. It’s not done and dusted. We are six points behind with 11 games left to play.

“I think if we can pick up three points on Wednesday, given Ross County play tomorrow against St Mirren - we can also throw St Johnstone into that mix as well - if we can claw three points back from somewhere it puts a wee bit of pressure on the teams above us.

“I genuinely believe we have players good enough to stay in this league. I need to make sure the players believe that also."

Image source, SNS

Brian McLauchlin, BBC Sport Scotland

Livingston manager David Martindale has been speaking to the media as his side looking to bounce back from a dramatic defeat in the Highlands when they host Motherwell on Wednesday.

Here are the key points:

• Accepts his share of responsibility for losing basement battle at Ross County on Saturday, saying the first goal may have "drained the confidence" out of his players despite their comeback from two goals down.

• Not concerned that some pundits have his side as good as relegated, arguing that he's heard these predictions from the very start of his tenure. Adds it would be "a wee bit sweeter" to prove them wrong and retain Premiership status.

• Maintains his squad is "good enough" to beat the drop and he must ensure the players believe that themselves.

• Assessing his relegation rivals, he states St Johnstone can still be thrown "into that mix" if Livingston "claw three points back from somewhere".

• However, he says Motherwell have "turned a corner" as he praises Stuart Kettlewell for instilling an "attacking threat" and making his team "very good at home".