‘New signing’ Hardie ready to steal limelight
He has been one of the stars of Livingston’s incredible Premiership return.
But Craig Halkett reckons fit again Ryan Hardie is ready to steal the limelight.
Halkett notched from the spot to put Livi on the path to a stunning 5-0 win over Hearts on Friday night.
Rangers loanee Hardie then helped seal the Lions’ win with a quick-fire double.
Having fought his way back to fitness following a long injury lay-off, the young hitman has three goals from his last two games.
Now Halkett – another former Rangers kid – reckons Hardie can keep banging them in.
“Ryan has been itching to get back,” said Halkett.
“From his initial injury he has had another couple and been really unfortunate with that.
“But now that he is back, he has showed what he does – he scores goals.
“He could have had more on Friday. He had a great run and strike in the first half and it’s just unfortunate it never went in.
“But you know as long as he is on the pitch he will get you goals.
“I’m delighted for him. He has been doing a lot of work with our physios and the physios back at Rangers.
“He has been doing a lot of travelling to check in at both places and I’m really pleased all that work is paying off for him.
“He is actually like a new signing and we still have big Lee Miller and Rafa de Vito to come back too.
“We had a few bad results but we have bounced back well and I think that’s us back in the top six now.”
Livi are just five points adrift of champions Celtic thanks to Friday night’s win.
Their proximity to the top of the league is largely thanks to their incredible home form.
Gary Holt’s side have lost just one league game on their own patch this season, with seven wins and two draws rounding out their record.
For Halkett, that’s proof that every Premiership team ought to fear a trip to West Lothian.
“We take great pride in that,” he said.
“All the boys were disappointed when we lost that game to St Johnstone and since then we have bounced back perfectly.
“We want to keep that going, so that teams know that it’s going to be hard coming here.
“If we can create that kind of atmosphere for teams coming here it’s going to be perfect and suit us.
“We need to work on our away from too though because we can’t just rely on the home form.”