Lions are left bewildered

LIVINGSTON boss Davie Hay saw his side’s six-match unbeaten run come to a halt against Hearts at Tynecastle on Saturday but insisted: "That was the best we’ve played in a while."

The Lions contributed enormously to an entertaining clash in the Capital and were left shaking their heads at just how they had ended the 90 minutes with nothing to show for their efforts.

For long spells it looked as though it would be the West Lothian club who would grab all three points yet they were denied even a share of the spoils as the Jambos hit back with two goals in the closing six minutes to seal a 3-1 victory.

The Lions, though, have reason to feel aggrieved at the manner of their defeat with Mark de Vries appearing to handle the ball in the build-up to Hearts’ equalising strike while the injury-time penalty award that ensured the points would be staying in Gorgie looked to be a bad call by referee Stuart Dougal with Brian Kerr seemingly taking the ball rather than De Vries as the official decided.

Those incidents turned the game in Hearts’ favour and will have contributed in no small way to Hay’s decision to report the official to the SFA for the way in which he handled the match.

Despite being upset by Dougal’s performance Hay was pleased with the overall display of his side.

"I thought, strangely enough, that was as well as we’ve played for a while," said Hay.

"I’m not taking anything away from Hearts because they fight well and big De Vries can cause problems but I thought we deserved to come out with something. We’ve been trying to make it hard for the opposition when they have the ball as well as trying to play with pace and conviction when we have it and that showed in spells.

"From a football point of view I thought that we deserved to take something out of the game."

If luck had been with Livingston for last Wednesday’s CIS League Cup win over Dundee United when hapless referee Willie Young and an own goal from Paul Gallacher contributed heavily to their success, it certainly deserted the Almondvale club at the weekend.

The visitors were forced to alter the 3-5-2 formation that has served them so well in recent weeks and change to a 4-4-2 after just 24 minutes when Emmanuel Dorado had to limp off with hamstring injury.

Livingston’s plans were further hit when David Fernandez, who had looked lively in the first half, failed to reappear at the interval, he too, suffering hamstring problems.

These setbacks didn’t stop Livingston taking a deserved lead in the 52nd minute, however.

Former Hearts man Lee Makel did well down the right flank to hit the by-line and cut the ball back to Derek Lilley six-yards from goal.

The bustling front-man didn’t get the cleanest of connections on the ball but despite a great effort from Craig Gordon to keep the ball out, it found it’s way into the net.

That seemed to spur the home side into action as they began to put their visitors under concerted pressure for almost the first time in the game.

When the equaliser did come it owed less to luck and more to the failure of referee Dougal to spot a hand-ball by De Vries in the build-up to the goal. The big Dutchman used a hand to control a ball into the box and, although it didn’t appear to be deliberate, it allowed him to turn marker Marvin Andrews and fire a shot across goal.

Lions goalkeeper Roddy McKenzie, who had kept five successive clean sheets before the weekend, looked to get a hand to it to turn it onto the post but with the Livingston defence slow to react Andy Kirk was on hand to tap the ball in from a yard.

Kirk added a second five minutes from time to send the Jambos on the way to the win but the points were wrapped up in controversial circumstances deep into injury time.

With Livingston pressing for an equaliser they were hit on the counter-attack as De Vries broke clear.

The Dutchman charged into the box but appeared to be running out of steam allowing Kerr to stretch out a foot and take the ball out of his reach. The referee thought otherwise and awarded a spot-kick - converted by Steven Pressley - before ordering off David McNamee for protesting against the decision.

After the final whistle, Makel was also shown a yellow card for comments he made relating to the penalty incident.

And while Hay admitted the penalty decision had not changed the outcome of the game he insisted that it was just one of a number of decisions that referee Dougal had called wrongly.

"The penalty didn’t make any difference to the outcome but I thought it was harsh.

" I said to the referee that as a club official I would be reporting him for a poor performance.

"I thought there were a lot of bookings and I didn’t feel there needed to be. I was unhappy with his overall performance."

Taken from the Scotsman