Furious Holt blames ‘cocky’ stars for loss
Livingston manager Gary Holt tore into his players after their lacklustre performance at Rugby Park produced a fifth defeat in six games for the West Lothian club.
Holt was particularly angry that the effort and the concentration which had been so evident in their 2-0 home win over champions Celtic immediately prior to the international break was missing yesterday.
And he placed the blame for that squarely on the shoulders of the men who were stripped for action.
“We spoke after the Celtic win about how people are going to look at you and question you and they’ve certainly opened themselves up to a bit of flak now,” he said.
“You can have a look at things; were they too cocky?
“Were they thinking, because they won the last game they can just turn up?
“I certainly didn’t and my staff certainly didn’t.
“We prepared them right and we gave two soft goals away and I feel for my ‘keeper because he’s not had a save to make and he’s lost two goals.
“We need to get back to basics of defending our box.”
Former Norwich City, Nottingham Forest and Wycombe Wanderers midfielder Holt struggled to understand how his side could fail to follow simple instructions and hand out free gifts to the opposition.
“We talked about the first goal being vital and then we concede a poor one from a set play – again,” he fumed.
“We then told them not to give them an easy second one and that happened, too.
“Suddenly it’s 60 minutes and they’re like: ‘Oh, we better start playing now we’re 2-0 down’.
“You can’t afford that.
“You can’t turn up and think you can give a team a two-goal start and then think ‘We’ll have a go now.’
“It’s not acceptable.
“There are ways to lose a game but we just weren’t at it individually and collectively.
“I don’t ever question their attitude but I just thought we were a half a yard off it.”