Lions pride hurt after another home defeat

RICHARD GOUGH heads to Ibrox on Saturday on the back of another disappointing home defeat.

The Livingston manager saw his side beaten 2-1 by Hearts last night, after a 4-1 defeat by SPL minnows Inverness at the weekend.

Despite making six changes to his team, former Rangers captain Gough watched as his side failed to hold on to a 1-0 lead, established in the 74th minute thanks to Derek Lilley.

A tremendous 84th-minute free-kick by Celtic target Paul Hartley, followed just two minutes later by Lee Miller's header, meant Livi remained bottom of the table.

Gough, finding it hard to settle the team, was obviously disappointed with his players.

He said: "I want the players to go in there and prove they are worth of a position in the team and, in the seven games or so that I have had, there are not many - maybe two or three - who I would say will be playing every week.

"But their attitude was 100% better than it was on Saturday and we got ourselves in front.

"That was fortunate as Hearts were on top at that time. We did not deserved to lose the game; I think a share of the points would have been fairer."

However, Hearts gaffer John Robertson insists his side deserved the victory, despite the lateness of the goals.

He said: "To be fair, we knew it was going to be a tough game after Livingston took a heavy defeat last weekend.

"We knew the team that Richard sent out would battle and scrap for everything, and that is exactly what they did.

"We had lots of domination and had three or four chances in the first half and did not take them.

"We said to the players at half-time to go out and keep creating and one will come, but we missed another two or three and Livingston, with their first real chance, scored and then we were up against it.

"We decided to chuck the two young boys, Saulius Mikoliunas and Halmar Ghorridson, on and see if we got a spark - and they gave us that.

"It is very hard on Livingston, but, although we left it late again, we merited the win."

Taken from eveningtimes.co.uk