OF EXECUTION AS STAGGIES TURN LACKLUSTRE
their reward after 12 minutes, with a helping hand from County defender Ryan Leak.
The centre-back attempted to guide a long ball back to his keeper but his header was weak, allowing Anderson to intercept and lift a deft lob over the exposed Ross Laidlaw.
The Lions were good for their lead and keen to build a cushion. There was further panic in the Staggies rearguard when Dan MacKay’s low cross was met by Scott Pittman but Laidlaw gathered at the second attempt.
Appeals for a Livingston penalty then came to nothing just after the half-hour mark when Anderson claimed he was felled by Michee Efete after taking down a MacKay delivery.
County lacked any cohesion and rarely threatened Shamal George in the Livi goal.
However, George was called into action to block a Josh Sims effort from a tight angle following Michael Nottingham’s wayward defensive header.
With Hibernian doing County a favour by taking a 2-0 half-time lead at St Johnstone, the door was open for the visitors to move out of the relegation zone.
With this in mind, interim County boss Don Cowie made a bold double substitution at the recess; the arrival of Jordan White and Eamonn Brophy meaning they had three out-and-out strikers on the pitch, with Simon Murray having started.
The match, however, slipped further away from their grasp, Kelly doubling Livingston’s lead from the penalty spot.
Nottingham’s free-kick was kept alive on the edge of the box and MacKay’s overhead kick, which was going nowhere, struck the raised hand of Efete. Kelly’s effort was out of reach of Laidlaw, who guessed the right way.
Livingston had a two-goal lead at Tynecastle in their last outing before collapsing to a 4-2 defeat to Hearts. But they defended manfully to ensure they were reunited with that winning feeling at the final whistle.
County remain 11th in the Premiership, one point behind St Johnstone. The defeat was compounded by recognition that yesterday was a missed opportunity given events in Perth.
The Dingwall men collected a historic victory over Rangers on their last outing but interim boss Cowie was at a loss to explain this lacklustre display. He said: ‘It was really disappointing. We rightly got a lot of plaudits after the Rangers performance and result two weeks ago.
‘Today, we were a shadow of ourselves from that game. We’re an honest group and it wasn’t good enough.
‘The manner and performance against Rangers was really positive. We got a great result. I wanted us to build on that but we started poorly and gifted Livingston their first goal which gives them a boost. They kicked on, we didn’t respond.’