Holt ‘sick’ of soft Livvy losing their way

GARY HOLT has told his Livingston players they will have to toughen up quickly if they are to dig their way out of trouble.

Comfortably the better side in the first half at Pittodrie, the Almondvale men found themselves two goals behind in six minutes after failing to turn up for the second half.

Now bottom of the table after failing to win any of their five opening games, Holt admits he is growing tired of seeing his side falling out of matches for no apparent reason.

‘I’m sick of coming up here, playing well and coming away with nothing,’ said the Livingston manager.

‘It’s disappointing because we spoke at half-time about how well we were doing. Aberdeen were not creating anything and we were in our shape well.

‘But we gave two soft goals away. It was really poor and we have to eradicate it.

‘We are letting people get in on the keeper too easily.

‘He’s had nothing to do and had to pick the ball out of the net twice.

‘It was a ten or 15-minute spell at the start of the second half.

‘We talked at half-time about the good things we’d done. Maybe I should just hammer them and tell them they’re rubbish!

‘Within ten minutes, we were two down and you think: “How has that happened?”.

‘We didn’t lay a finger on them for the two goals and that’s not acceptable.’

With striker Lyndon Dykes having moved to Queens Park Rangers, Holt had to play Scott Robinson up front.

Explaining why neither of his new signings were able to feature at Aberdeen, Holt added: ‘We waited and waited for Anthony’s (Stokes) clearance and it was the same for Lars Lokotsch.

‘But we knew this morning it wasn’t going to arrive in time, so the decision was made.

‘Stokes trained with us yesterday and you can see the quality he’s got. He gives us things at the top end of the pitch we don’t have. He will be massive for us.’

Livingston felt they should have had a penalty late in the game when Shay Logan’s arm appeared to rest on a loose ball.

Holt said: ‘You can usually tell from the players’ reaction and all my players thought it was a penalty.

‘Steven (McLean, the referee) has said he thinks he got it right, so if he has then fair play to him.

‘We can’t rely on refs giving us something.’