MATCH REPORT: LIVINGSTON V UNITED

United conceded two second half goals as they slipped to defeat away to Livingston.

The pandemic again dominated the sporting headlines in the run up to the match. Motherwell leapfrogged United into fifth in the table without playing a game, as they were awarded two 3-0 victories for opposition Covid breaches. Nine United players were then forced into precautionary self-isolation, along with the entire first team coaching staff, resulting in Tam Courts stepping up to represent manager Micky Mellon in the dugout. The erstwhile Lion and current United Academy Head of Tactical Performance was supported from the bench by a fleet of familiar faces, a full eight of Our Academy Graduates bolstering a strong starting XI. 

The first half hour at the Tony Macaroni Arena was played out in the sort of torrential rain which in biblical times would have seen Noah hastily hammering planks together. But the downpour did nothing to quench a fiery midfield battle, with Harkes, Fuchs and Powers to the fore in challenging hard for every ball and denying Livingston dominance. 

United carried the early threat. Spörle fired a free kick narrowly wide of the left post on twelve minutes. Minutes later Shankland looked sharp to evade his marker and nod in a Harkes corner, only to be denied by the referee for perceived foul play elsewhere in the box. 

The final quarter of the first half saw the home side grow into the game, with Forrest in particular causing trouble down United’s right. Both teams will have been content to go into half time level. 

Livingston managed to puncture the United defence several times in the early second half. Big Benji Siegrist had several saves to make, knocking a free kick wide for a corner. He saved again from Captain Bartley shortly after. The Livi pressure eventually paid off. Scott Pittman put the home side ahead on 57 minutes. Running on to the ball forty yards out, the number eight carried to the edge of the box and scored into the bottom left corner. 

Siegrist kept United in it by pulling off several fine saves. He tipped Mullen’s powerful shot wide, after the Livi attacker won a header at the edge of the area and cracked his effort goalward. Livingston were hunting a second goal, and Siegrist again had to make a save as the resulting corner was headed on target. 

Bartley, the Livingston captain, scored a second for the home team with just over a quarter of an hour remaining. 

United tried to respond, with Spörle striking high from outside the area. Our Academy Graduate Louis Appéré, subbed on after the first goal, offered an attacking outlet with several thundering runs down the right wing, beating his man and getting balls into the box. United managed a few shots on goal as the match came to a close, but none found the back of the net. 

UNITED: Siegrist, Smith, Spörle, Powers, Connolly, Reynolds (C), McNulty, Edwards, Harkes, Shankland, Fuchs,  SUBS: Deniz, Appéré (AG), Neilson (AG), Watson (AG), Hutchison (AG), Finn Robson (AG), Flynn (AG), Caves (AG), Malcolm (AG). 

LIVINGSTON: Max Stryjek, Serrano, Fitzwater, Guthrie, Devlin, Bartley, Sibbald, Forrest, Pittman, Mullin, Poplatnik SUBS: McCrorie, McMillan, Brown, Ambrose, Lawson, Taylor-Sinclair, Robinson, Tiffoney, Emmanuel-Thomas