Get well soon gaffer.. here’s three points
Fired-up Livi gave laid-low boss Gary Holt the perfect pick-me-up with a hard-fought win.
Holt is recovering from a blood condition in hospital and missed yesterday’s clash.
But with assistant manager Davie Martindale at the helm, Alan Lithgow and Lyndon Dykes bulged the net to stretch the Lions’ unbeaten league run to four games.
Martindale said: “Gary is okay and hopefully he’ll get out of hospital on Monday. He was meant to be getting out on Thursday then Friday and then Saturday. But he should be here by Monday and back at work.
“Hopefully that result has made him feel a bit better. The performance was great. On chances created we probably deserved it but St Mirren put us under a lot of pressure in the second half.
“They’re a different team this year with a lot of resilience. But the fundamentals that we’re built on, like hard work and putting our bodies on the line, means we’re resilient ourselves.
“We’re brave on the ball. I thought the boys were fantastic.
“Nothing really changed to be honest. Me and Holty speak all the time. So we had a good idea of what the team would be.”
Defender Lithgow was allowed space in the box to power in a free header from Aymen Souda’s corner in 26 minutes and Dykes also found himself in acres of room to fire home a Chris Erskine cutback for the second.
Kyle Magennis’ stunning curler high into the net in 64 minutes gave the Paisley side hope.
At the other end, Dykes enraged the visiting support by lunging into keeper Vaclav Hladky as the No.1 came out to clear his lines.
And Steven Lawless met a Dykes pass across the edge of the box before shooting over. But the Buddies were throwing bodies forward in search of an equaliser and dithering by Jon Obika wasted a great chance.
Skipper Paul McGinn then drove an effort straight into the arms of Ross Stewart.
It was not to be for Buddies and home sub Jack Stobbs could have made it more comfortable for Livi only to hit the woodwork.
Saints boss Jim Goodwin said: “We took a lot of plaudits in our last three league games for how resilient and hard to beat we were. But for Lithgow to be free in our six-yard box to have a header is unacceptable.
“I also felt that they got their second against the run of play.
“But we got the goal back and Kyle did brilliantly.
“We had plenty of time left to go and get an equaliser. We had chances but the ball did not fall kindly for us.
“One or two decisions that you want to go for you went against us. It was one of those afternoons.”