Allan Preston
BBC Scotland summariser on Sportsound

St Johnstone can't really get going, with a lot of errant touches and heavy passes. It's all a bit rushed at the moment.

Allan Preston
BBC Scotland summariser on Sportsound

Steven Thompson
Former Scotland striker on BBC Sportsound

Ooft! Very close to an opener for Livingston as Josh Mullin steers a sweetly-timed shot towards the bottom corner of the net but Zander Clark springs into action, tipping the ball wide.

Steven Thompson
Former Scotland striker on BBC Sportsound

Ouch!published at 15 mins

15 mins

Livingston 0-0 St Johnstone

The Marvin Bartley v Shaun Rooney battle is heating up nicely.

The Livingston skipper gave the Saints wing-back an off-the-ball barge earlier and now there is some payback as a tumbling Rooney catches Bartley on the head with a trailing boot.

Image source, SNS

St Johnstone are feeling their way into the game with Ali McCann getting involved and a few nice touches from David Wotherspoon.

Livingston are not hanging about. They like to get the ball forward quickly and St Johnstone are looking a bit rattled.

Allan Preston
Former Livingston manager & St Johnstone winger on Sportsound

Marvin Bartley hoists a high ball into the St Johnstone box and a knockdown from Scott Robinson falls for Efe Ambrose only for the experienced Livi defender to lash a shot miles over the bar.

St Johnstone keeper Zander Clark is at full-stretch to bat away a Livingston free kick and Craig Conway completes the clearance with a mighty hoof away.

Steven Thompson
Former Scotland striker on BBC Sportsound

A rip-roaring start, with Livingston lumping the ball into the Saints penalty area a couple of times before the Perth side come haring forward on the counter-attack.

Shane Rooney gallops into the box but rather than try his luck with a shot his cut-back is cut out by Julien Serrano and deflected into the arms of goalkeeper Robby McCrorie.

Referee Don Robertson peeps his whistle and away we go.

Here come the teams.

Billy Dodds
Former Scotland striker on BBC Sportsound

"We've kept everything the same, trained the same, schedule is the same to try and keep things familiar for the players," St Johnstone manager Callum Davidson tells BBC Sportsound. "Hopefully that will pay off today."

"It's heartbreaking for Murray [Davidson]. I can sympathise with him because I missed a lot of games through injuries in my career. He's a big part of this team and he'll be a big miss.

"With Guy [Melamed] it's purely about formation. We wanted to set up in a similar way to the semi-final when we went 5-2-3.

"Livingston are a really hard working team, we've got to match that energy. They're also a good footballing team, I think people underestimate that at times.

"If we can play like we did in the semi-final we'll give ourselves a chance and that's what you've got to do in a cup final."

Image source, SNS

Livingston manager David Martindale tells BBC Sportsound that he has just read out a text of encouragement from his nine-year-old daughter to provide some extra motivation for his squad.

"I've got 13-14 players who had a good chance of starting today," he says. "What I've seen in training has made my mind up but what I said to the boys that it's a tactical thing today not so much about their form.

"It's going to be a really tough game. Let's be honest it's going to be a coin toss. It's going to be a really tight affair but I think it will lend itself to be a better game than the semi-final against St Mirren, which was tense.

"For me Robbo (Scott Robinson) epitomises everything that we're about. He's a student of the game and understands everything I ask of him to do on the park.

"Every player in that dressing room deserves to be here so they just need to enjoy it and try to take their chance."

Image source, SNS

Livingston have all but secured a top-six finish ahead of the Premiership splitting into two for the final five fixtures and sit fifth, seven points ahead of Saints in eighth.

However, David Martindale's side have gone three games without a win after that 14-game unbeaten run was ended by today's opponents.

That win at Tony Macaroni Arena contributed to an 11-game spell during which Saints have suffered only two defeats.

However, their most recent sequence is W-L-W-L-W. If that continues today, the cup is heading for West Lothian.

Image source, SNS