FALKIRK 1 LIVINGSTON 2

LIVINGSTON boss David Hopkin admitted his side have surpassed his own expectations after they swept past the Bairns into the quarter-finals of the Betfred Cup. With the teams locked at 1-1 after 90 minutes, substitute Raffa De Vita struck in extra time to fire Hopkin’s men past their Championship rivals and into tonight’s draw for the last eight. Having topped a group including Partick Thistle and St Mirren, Livingston are showing no signs of letting up — and their manager is revelling in the adventure. ‘If I’m honest, I didn’t think we would get this far,’ he said. ‘This was a bonus because I didn’t expect us to get out of our group. But this victory will secure us a wee bit more money, which will help because we’re trying to change the image of the club. The board have been great with me financially. ‘The club is going in the right direction and you could see that with the amount of fans we had here. My ambition is to fill our own home stand on a regular basis. ‘We’re in the quarter-finals now and there are a lot of big clubs in the draw. If we were to get one of them, it would be great for the club financially. ‘The club deserves a wee bit of luck after the amount of bad press we’ve had over the past four or five years.’ Falkirk granted free entry to all youngsters who passed their exams yesterday, but James Craigen’s schoolboy error gifted Livingston the lead on 32 minutes. The midfielder played a woefully slack pass in the middle of the park, which was seized upon by Josh Mullen. He spread the play wide to namesake Danny, who whipped a delightful cross into the box for Scott Robinson to volley home. Craigen was to atone for his error by equalising for Peter Houston’s side in the 40th minute. Latching on to an Alex Harris pass in the left channel, he cut inside and slotted the ball low into the far corner beyond Neil Alexander. Livingston enjoyed much the better of the play after the interval, but it was Falkirk sub Joe McKee who went closest, his free-kick clipping the top of the bar on 72 minutes. Hopkin’s Championship new boys came into the tie unbeaten in 14 games in all competitions, a run stretching back to March, and simply refused to go away. As the game moved into extra time, they played with far more intent. It wasn’t difficult to see why they romped to the League One title by a whopping 19 points last season. In the 101st minute, De Vita converted Josh Mullen’s cross to send travelling fans into ecstasy. The Italian’s last goal in the League Cup had come for Ross County in a 7-0 rout of Falkirk in 2015. He had returned to haunt the Bairns.

FALKIRK (4-2-3-1): Thomson; Gasparotto, Watson, Grant, Gallacher; Taiwo, Kerr; Harris (Miller 56), Craigen (Shepherd 102), Hippolyte (McKee 68); Austin (Loy 90). Subs not used: Mitchell, O’Hara, Blues. Booked: Hippolyte, Watson. LIVINGSTON (3-5-2): Alexander; Gallagher, Halkett, Lithgow; J Mullen, Byrne, Jacobs, Pittman, Cadden (Longridge 62); Robinson (Carrick 62 (Mackin 113), D Mullen (De Vita 72). Subs not used: Knox, Maley, Peters. Booked: Gallagher, J Mullen. Referee: Andrew Dallas. Attendance: 2,677. Man of the match: Josh Mullen.