Livingston have two former Hibees in their ranks this evening.

Andrew Shinnie helped the Edinburgh club win the Championship title while on loan for the 2016-17 and endeared himself to fans by scoring in a Scottish Cup victory over Hearts.

Stephane Omeonga had two loan spells at Easter Road from Genoa and the piano-playing Belgian impressed in his first stint but did not feature much under current boss Jack Ross. Might he have a point to prove this evening?

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John Rankin
Former Hibernian midfielder on Sportsound

Speaking to BBC Sportsound, Hibernian manager Jack Ross said: "The players have been good and physically what they’re producing is good. Mindset-wise is a good gauge of how they are. If any of them are starting to fatigue we can freshen it up, we have a quick turnaround after this obviously but so far so good.

"Chris Cadden has a slight knock from the weekend, he’ll hopefully be back at the weekend coming. We might have made that change anyway in terms of getting Jamie Murphy back into the team."

Asked about his side's poor clean sheet record, he added: "The players are aware of it, they can't ignore it. It’s not weighing heavily on their minds, but they just need to understand the significance of the whole team defending their box.

“We need to get more consistency about us."

And here's what he said...

Speaking to BBC Sportsound, Livingston manager David Martindale said: “The park looks like it will be moving quite quickly, I’m looking forward to it.

"We are six without a win but we were five undefeated before we had some tough fixtures, the data can be skewed to suit the narrative. I feel now we’re going into a run of fixtures where the chance of success is a bit higher. We’ve got to start picking points up as soon as possible."

Asked about his plans for tonight, he replies: "Putting the ball in the back of the net. I think you can get at them down the sides. Jack (Ross) will probably be saying the exact same thing about me though. It’ll be a good game of football tonight."

Alex Neil
Former Hamilton, Norwich & Preston manager on Sportsound

Only St Johnstone (nine) have scored fewer goals than Livingston (12) in the league and they have drawn a blank in their last two outings.

The good news for the hosts is that Hibs have gone nine games without a clean sheet and have only managed four shutouts in 15 Premiership matches.

The Hibs defence was pretty mean last season, not conceding in 15 of their league encounters, with manager Jack Ross asking yesterday for his side to show "ruthlessness in defending our box".

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Hibs picked up a club record 13 away wins last season on their way to a third place finish.

And they had a very good record on artificial pitches, picking up 10 points from a possible 12 on the road at Livingston (twice), Kilmarnock and Hamilton.

It was 1-1 on Hibs' most recent visit to Livingston in March last season. The Edinburgh side have had the upper hand over their nearby rivals of late, with four wins, four draws and two defeats in the last 10.

But Livi have enjoyed a victory in this fixture in each of the past three seasons and romped to a memorable 3-0 success at Easter Road back in January.

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Lee Miller
Former Livingston striker on Sportsound

Hibs were 2-0 winners when the teams met at Easter Road in late August, taking them top of the table after four games.

It was a rather low key affair, with just three efforts on target, but the second half goals from Kevin Nisbet and Martin Boyle were both beauties, with the latter running on to a Scott Allan back-heel before dinking the keeper.

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Let's have a closer look at recent form. It doesn't make great reading for either side.

Livingston have followed three league draws with three defeats on the spin and are now just two points above basement boys Ross County.

Hibs have been in something of a tailspin but there have been signs of a recovery of late. Jack Ross' side have picked up four points from their last three Scottish Premiership games (W1 D1 L1), as many as they did in their previous seven league games (W1 D1 L5).

Hibs are playing twice a week throughout December but there's only one alteration to the starting side after Saturday's 1-1 draw with Motherwell as Jamie Murphy comes in for Chris Cadden, who drops out altogether.

It's Murphy's first start since late October, the winger having missed a couple of games through injury before coming off the bench in the last three.

Livi boss David Martindale said he had a couple of fitness doubts after Sunday's 1-0 defeat to Hearts and Jackson Longridge is back from suspension, but the left-back doesn't get a look in as the hosts go with the same starting XI.

Scott Pittman returns from injury to take a place on the bench.

Livingston: Stryjek, Devlin, Fitzwater, Parkes, Penrice, Holt, Omeonga, McMillan, Sibbald, Forrest, Shinnie.

Substitutes: Maley, Kelly, Obileye, Montano, Pittman, Anderson, Panayiotou.

Hibernian: Macey, McGinn, Porteous, Hanlon, Doig, Doyle-Hayes, Newell, Boyle, Campbell, Murphy, Nisbet.

Substitutes: Dabrowski, Doidge, Stevenson, Scott, Gogic, McGregor, Allan.

Just the one midweek Scottish Premiership fixture, with Livingston and Hibernian catching up on a game that was postponed last month after a Covid outbreak at the Easter Road club.

Both sides are in real need of a boost, with the hosts winless in their last six, while the visitors have lost six of their last eight in the league.

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