It was the proverbial game of two halves at a blustery Tannadice Park, with Livingston having their best 45 minutes of the season, followed by a lacklustre second, as they limped their way to a point against Dundee United. Scott Pittman scored his 54th goal for Livi in the first half, however this was cancelled out by a second half strike by Krisztian Keresztes to secure a share of the spoils.

Martindale made just one change from the side that conceded late to Rangers last Sunday, with Andy Winter dropping to the bench, replaced by Connor McLennan.

Livi had their first good chance of the game with just nine minutes played. Wonderful passing play in the middle of the pitch found Lewis Smith who drove from midfield to a forward position. On the edge of the box he drove his shot low, forcing Yevhenii Kucherenko into a smart save to this left, palming the ball into the path of Stevie May, his effort blocked by the Dundee United defender and out, however the linesman called for a goal kick rather than the deserved corner.

The Lions were the dominant side for the majority of the first 20 minutes, with United offering up very little in the way of chances, although Nikolaj Moller should have done a lot better with a fantastic reverse pass from Ivan Dolcek, pitting him one-on-one with Jerome Prior, but he could only blast it over the bar, much to the host fans frustration.

Things clearly weren’t working for Jim Goodwin and midway through the first half he opted to change the shape, moving to a back four, with Iurie Iovu making way for Julius Eskesen. The change seemed to waken the hosts, and they carved a good opportunity on the edge of the box, the effort from Vicko Sevelj though hitting the top of the stand behind the goal and away.

Despite the pressure from the hosts, the Lions took a deserved lead on 35 minutes. A poor back pass from the United defence was pounced upon by Stevie May who drove into the box and knocked the ball to Scott Pittman, who tapped into the empty net to give Livi a one goal advantage.

And it was Pittman who almost doubled his and Livi’s goal tally just three minutes later. A deep cross from the left was knocked back across the face by sub Tete Yengi, who found Pittman, but his effort was hooked wide.

The boos were ringing out around Tannadice as the forward press of Livingston, particularly Stevie May was causing the defence all kinds of problems. The Livi number 17 almost scored an incredible strike from around 25 yards out, his low strong effort saved well by Kucherenko.

It looked as though Sevelj had levelled things for the hosts on the stroke of halftime, indeed most of Tannadice thought the ball had hit the back of the net, but the defender’s header was wide of the mark from the corner, when it looked easier to score.

Dundee United came out flying for the second, with Goodwin rolling the dice by making two changes, Sibbald and Fatah replacing Dolcek and Camara. It was the latter who made an instant impact, drawing a foul from McLennan on the right side of the box as he hit the byline. The free kick was duly delivered and fell to the feet of Krisztian Keresztes, who stepped past his defender and fired the ball across the face of goal to bring the host’s level.

The goal had put the wind in the sails of the United team and they looked the much brighter team as the blustery conditions caused an issue for the Lions going forward. They couldn’t transform this into chances though; with the best the hosts could come up with was a shot from Moller at the edge of the box which was deflected and saved easily by Prior.

With 15 minutes to go United looked like they had found the back of the net not once but twice. A looped ball over to the edge of the box found Luca Stephenson who rifled a fierce strike at goal which was saved by Prior but parried out into the danger area. This appeared to be blocked and cleared; however it managed to find its way to sub Kristijan Trapanovski, he looked like he had beaten Prior but two Livi players were on the line to clear the danger.

The game was swinging from end to end as both teams looked to break the deadlock, and after a promising effort from Livi was squashed, it allowed Sevelj to break away down the other end. With absolutely no one in a tangerine shirt around, he managed to step past Macaulay Tait goal-ward, and smashed an effort forcing Prior to save well.

United were looking to more likely of the two to get the winner, and they almost got it with five minutes of normal time remaining. A good cross from the left found Fatah who glanced his header across goal looking for the far corner but it was off target.

Livi did have threatening spells themselves and shortly afterwards showed some good play on the left wing. With Dundee United not being able to clear their box, it fell to Tete Yengi on the edge of the six-yard box, but he couldn’t set his feet to make decent contact with the ball, and it was easily cleared.

As the game neared its end Livi almost stole the three points in the most unorthodox of ways. Mo Susuho, who had played very well to this point, managed to secure the ball on the right wing after good play from Andy Winter. His cross was overhit but it looped dangerously towards the back post, crashing off the crossbar and away to safety in the eyes of the tangerine contingency in Tannadice. It proved to be the last real effort as Duncan Nicolson called an end minutes later to secure a share of the points.

Match report: David Hastie

Share this: