Lions pair inspired by talks

MARK BONTHRONE

LIVINGSTON boss Allan Preston has revealed how a heart-to-heart with defenders Emmanuel Dorado and Rubio before Sunday’s clash with Hearts inspired the duo to turn in their best display of the season.

The Lions’ central defensive partnership has been the subject of criticism so far this term as both players struggled to match the high standards they set for themselves last year.

Basic mistakes have cost the West Lothian club crucial goals and Preston had warned that unless the errors were cut out, his side could find themselves embroiled in a relegation battle. However, at Tynecastle at the weekend the Livingston rearguard turned in a solid performance for a 0-0 draw and Preston believes the key was a chat he had with Dorado and Rubio just before kick-off.

"They have come in for some criticism this season and some of it has been justified," he admitted. "I spoke to them both before the game and told them exactly what we expected of them and that they had to start delivering. We spoke about what had been going wrong and they listened to me and I listened to them.

"They know themselves that they haven’t been up to scratch recently and that has possibly been down to a lack of confidence for whatever reason. However, at the weekend I thought they were excellent and I only remember Roddy McKenzie having one save to make in the whole game. Even when Hearts brought on Mark de Vries and Kevin McKenna and started playing the long ball from back to front I thought they coped well.

"It’s never easy playing against two big strong players like that but they proved they were up to the task.

Hopefully this is the start of us turning the corner," he added. "Tynecastle is a very hard place to go to and get a point and there won’t be many teams that manage that. We need to try and build on the result now."

David McNamee picked up a knee injury on Sunday while Burton O’Brien suffered a dead leg but with the break in fixtures due to the international weekend neither are expected to miss any games.

Taken from the Scotsman