Keeper Neil earns stuffy Livi a point
Hopkin praises his battling troops
Livingston ..................... 0 Inverness CT ................. 0 Neil Alexander rescued a point for Livingston with a pair of stunning saves as the Lions were held at home by Inverness.
The veteran stopper made a smart save in the first half to prevent Jake Mulraney from giving his side the lead after he raced through on goal before getting a toe to Connor Bell’s late effort from close range that would surely have been the matchwinner had it found the net.
With results elsewhere, Livi would have gone top of the Championship table had they won the game, but it could hardly be seen as an opportunity dropped in a tight affair against an improving Inverness side who claimed a sixth consecutive clean sheet.
Livi’s best chances came in the opening 90 seconds when they squandered two attempts to take an early lead.
Josh Mullin fired straight from the righthand side of the box at Mark Ridgers after 18 seconds before the winger’s corner was thundered over the bar by a powerful header from Craig Halkett.
The visitors did have the ball in the net in the opening stages but Connor Bell was ruled offside after tapping John Baird’s pass into the net.
After a fast start, the game died down but Livi proved difficult to break down as they packed the midfield leaving Danny Mullen up front on his own.
Alexander made the first of his key stops on 34 minutes when Mulraney got in behind the defence and with all the time in the world fired straight at the diving Alexander.
In the next passage of play, Jackson
Longridge went close to curling a beautiful effort with his weaker right foot into the far corner of the net from the edge of the box.
Alexander was called into action again in the opening minute of the second half but dealt with Iain Vigurs’ rising strike from distance comfortably.
It became evident that it was the sort of game in which a single goal would prove crucial and it was Thistle who appeared the most likely to get it as the game wore on.
And the key chance arrived with eight minutes remaining as Bell latched on to Liam Polworth’s pass but the youngster’s effort was superbly diverted wide by Alexander. Neither side were able to create any pressure during the remainder of the game as Livingston settled for their first goalless draw since February. A delighted David Hopkin was full of praise for his team as they extended their home unbeaten league run to five games. He said: “Inverness are a very good team who are keeping clean sheets and improving at the minute, so I’m delighted with the effort the boys put in to make sure we got a point from the game. We maybe weren’t a fluid as we usually are going forward but we’ve worked all week on defensive shape and kept that.
“The longer the game went on the more likely it was that one goal was going to win it and Neil has pulled off a great save from Bell towards the end.
“We gave up two one-on-one chances during the game and that was really it and Neil has saved them both. .”
“It shows you how far we’ve come as a club that everyone seems to be disappointed with a point against an Inverness side who were in the Premiership last season and kept a lot of their players.
“We have to be realistic – and I’m over the moon. We’re just trying to pick up as many points as possible as quickly as possible.”