Livingston comeback gives Holt a birthday gift as Saints continue to sink
GARY HOLT celebrated his 46th birthday with the victory present he had asked his side for — although it is hard not to feel St Johnstone’s players made a point of giftwrapping it for him.
Saints took the lead early on through captain Joe Shaughnessy and were denied by the post shortly afterwards.
But they wobbled and allowed Craig Halkett to level before the break, and, after kicking off to start of the second half, they gave away possession, allowing Craig Sibbald to make it 2-1.
Visiting substitute Tony Watt then missed a sitter three minutes from the end and Scott Pittman wrapped up the victory for the West Lothian men in stoppage-time.
The result means Tommy Wright’s Saints have lost eight of their last nine matches. He complained afterwards: ‘At 1-0, I thought we were the better side and could have gone two up, but we’ve been done by a long throw where we don’t deal with the second ball. Then, the second goal has come straight from our kick-off.
‘We’ve given the ball away three times. We’ve made three bad decisions where we should have gone long.
‘Tony’s chance was a big one. He’s obviously gutted and he’s apologised.
‘You don’t miss them deliberately, but it’s probably the best chance of the game and it should go in. For the third goal, we were caught on the ball again.
‘It’s a bad run. We’ve been here before and it’s not nice but we’ve caused it ourselves. We’ve got to learn to defend better.
‘I’ve asked the players where do they want to play their last five games. For parts of the game, they showed me they want to be a top six side.
‘But that bad spell has killed us and then we didn’t show enough urgency.’
Livingston certainly started in forceful style, with Steve Lawson’s
powerful drive from 20 yards deflected and then touched onto the post by goalkeeper Cammy Bell after just three minutes.
For a lengthy period in the first half, though, the visitors looked the more threatening and took the lead just before the quarter-hour mark.
Livvy failed to clear a corner from the right from Sean Goss and Shaughnessy managed to control the ball in a tight area and lash a low shot into the corner of the net.
Just over 10 minutes later, Saints came close to making it 2-0. Goss produced an excellent delivery from a free-kick that home defender Alan Lithgow had to stretch to clear.
However, the ball skidded off the top of his head and ricocheted against goalkeeper Liam Kelly’s right-hand post, with the visiting forward unable to get on the rebound under pressure.
When Livvy did get themselves back into the game, it came somewhat unexpectedly. Lithgow picked up the ball wide left and fired a searching cross to the back stick. Bell committed himself in coming off his line, but he misjudged Halkett’s run and the home captain got in first to convert with a header.
The tone was set for the second half in under a minute. With Saints simply unable to keep possession from their own kick-off, the ball made its way to Scott Robinson out right and his ball to the back post was met — and headed home — by the untracked Sibbald.
Saints, in contrast, just could not string anything together. They threw on Watt for Goss with 20 minutes remaining to go with two up front, but he proved unable to bring an end to the Perth side’s recent agonies — missing that late sitter after putting the ball over from closerange from a Richard Foster cross.
With Saints still licking their wounds, Lawson’s persistence forced Jason Kerr into an error on the far side, with the Togo internationalist securing possession and then squaring for the onrushing Pittman to blast a first-time effort high into the net.
‘It’s a nice present and I asked them for it before the game,’ said Livvy manager Holt. ‘I asked them for three points.
‘It’s always more satisfying when you have to come from behind to do it. It shows character, resilience and everything we’re about.
‘As soon as we are mathematically safe, we can evaluate how we can attract better players to the club and shop in the market earlier than we did last season.
‘We can still get top six and that is our aim.’