The Sunday Post (Newcastle)

On the up Livi galvanised for tough period

- By Ian Steven SPORT@SUNDAYPOST.COM

It was a case of wrong place, wrong time for Kilmarnock, claimed Livingston winger Stevie Lawless, fresh off a man-of-the-match performanc­e, as the frustrated Lions hijacked their shellshock­ed opponents to move up to seventh in the league table.

“Some days like this it really clicks and I think that performanc­e has been coming, to be honest,” Lawless stated.

“In spells over the last few weeks we have played well but not for the full 90 minutes. It’s good that it clicked and hopefully we can take that into next week and get another good performanc­e. We are definitely a tough team to play against. I think every team in the league would say that.

“In the second half, we were clinical. We got the first goal and that gave the boys a little bit of extra energy in their legs. The second goal was crucial so it was good to get that. For me, the most important thing was turning the performanc­e into three points as we have had performanc­es where we feel we should have had the win with late goals costing us, but the boys were excellent today.”

Lawless admitted that the run of fixtures before Christmas will be crucial for Gary Holt’s men as they combat sides predicted to be obstacles to retaining Premiershi­p survival.

“I think everyone can see we had a very tough run of fixtures. Any points out of them would have been a bonus,” he added.

“Those are not the games we will be judged on, it’s the games round about us, they’re massive for us. Even the bigger and more talented teams will find it difficult playing against us and we feel we can get something out of these games.

“But it is the games with teams round about us that we need to pick up three points and we have another game on Saturday that we need to take points from.

“This time of year is always the same. The pitch is quite good in that type of weather where it is slick and you can pass the ball well. We used that to our advantage.

“The wind held the ball up a bit in the first half. You just need to play in those conditions and growing up here, we’re used to it.”.

 ??  ?? Killie’s Niko Hamalainen keeps tabs on Livi’s Steven Lawless
Killie’s Niko Hamalainen keeps tabs on Livi’s Steven Lawless

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