Boss Holt wants half century from his Livingston miracle men

GARY HOLT has held up a 50-point haul as a target for Livingston to aim for and cap a stunning season back in the top flight.

Pre-season favourites to finish bottom of the Ladbrokes Premiership pile, Livvy host Rangers today seeking their first success since the winter break.

A Scottish Cup defeat to Hearts was followed by another 1-0 loss at St Johnstone in midweek.

While Holt reported his players were despondent at that outcome, he urged them not to forget the scale of the achievement in earning 30 points from 22 games. Sixteen fixtures remain and Holt believes his men can return to early-season form and hit the half century.

Holt’s arithmetic has revealed that the 10th-placed finishers since the play-offs were introduced have gathered between 38 and 43 points in securing safety. Aiming higher is the plan.

‘We still have 30 points and that is an amazing achievement,’ said Holt. ‘But it’s only a starting point.

‘How many can we get? Teams didn’t give us points, we had to earn them. And that is the same now. We want to get as many as we can to see where we end up in the league.

‘Performances go hand in hand with the workrate and desire you show. At the start of the season it was about how quickly we could get the boys to believe they could play at this level.

‘And they got a boost from winning games. They feel comfortable in this league. Now we have to kick on and pick up more points.

‘We know that 30 isn’t enough to stay in the league, so we won’t rest on our laurels. We want more points because we know 50 keeps you in the league.

‘We need a wee five-percent lift from everyone, myself included, to get the best results for this club.’

Holt’s bid for that rise in performance has been dealt a blow by the absence of Ryan Hardie from today’s team when parent club Rangers visit.

Hardie is back on loan in West Lothian following a winter shutdown trip to Tenerife for training with Steven Gerrard’s stars.

How Holt would love to unleash a Rangers striker on the Ibrox side but the rules of loan arrangements between clubs in Scotland prevent him from doing so.

After pre-contract capture Jordan Jones struck a Rugby Park winner for Kilmarnock in midweek, Rangers will be grateful there is no prospect of Hardie further wounding their title hopes today.

But, with Dolly Menga out injured, that’s a source of annoyance to Holt.

‘It’s the one thing I would moan about in the loan system,’ said Holt.

‘It’s only in Britain that you’re not allowed to play against your parent club.

‘At the end of the day, I’m paying his wages. I should be allowed to play him.

‘It’s just a wee bugbear, because you’re not telling me if we get a penalty against Rangers that Ryan Hardie doesn’t want to score that penalty.

‘Jordan Jones knows where he’s going but he didn’t try to hit row Z with his shot, he tried to win the game.

‘I’ve seen it happen in the Champions League, players scoring against their club. So if they can do it at that level, surely we can?’