Livingston on way to last eight
“But what I wasn’t happy with was the 15 minutes after the break when I felt it was like we stayed in the changing rooms. That’s where they got their second goal from.
“I can’t fault them for their effort but I’m a wee bit disappointed.
“I think if we had started the second-half better it could have been a very different story.”
Livingston were made to work hard by League One side Forfar before they could book their quarter-final berth.
Play swung end to end but the breakthrough came in the 33rd minute when Dykes got his head to a Steven Lawless corner from the right and glanced a header across a busy box and straight into the Forfar net.
Dykes really should have stretched the visitor’s lead at the start of the second-half when the ball bounced kindly for him in the Forfar box but he shot straight into the keeper.
Pittman didn’t make the same mistake a few minutes later, however, when he made it 2-0 in the 52nd minute.
It should have been all over in the 61st minute but for an incredible miss from Dykes, who somehow screwed wide a Devlin ball across the face of goal from three yards out.
Instead, Forfar dragged themselves back into the tie a minute later thanks to the dogged determination of Hilson and some cool finishing. The Forfar forward robbed Alan Lithgow just outside the centre circle and bore down on goal, first drawing Sarkic, and then slotting the ball home.
There were more close calls at both ends but Livvy held on to progress. FORFAR:
Mccallum 8: Meechan 6, Docherty 6, Travis 6, Burns 6 (Bain 69 3): Forbes 6 (Aitken 82 3), Irvine 7, Tapping 7, Kirkpatrick 6 (Coupe 69 4) : Jackson 6, Hilson 7. LIVINGSTON:
Sarkic 6: Devlin 6, Lithgow 5, Guthrie, Lamie 6 (Savane 83): Crawford, Bartley 6, Pittman 7, Souda 6 (Robertson 46 3): Lawless 7 (Erskine 74 5), Dykes 7.