I would like to welcome Gary Naysmith, his staff and players for today’s league game at the Tony Macaroni Arena. 

I would like to start by wishing everyone a Happy New Year and all the best for 2018 from myself, my staff, players and Directors of Livingston FC.

Our last home game against Falkirk, it was good to get a game after not having played for four weeks. It was a game of not many chances but was good to get a point and a clean sheet.

Next up we played Dundee Utd at Tannadice, it was always going to be a difficult fixture for us. The week leading up to the game we had several players struggling with the flu and Neil Alexander wasn’t fit enough to play in the game. Gary Maley played and I thought he had a terrific game, he saved a penalty and had some good saves during the game. He deserves great credit for his performance and his professionalism to step in and play when called upon. We lost the game 3-0 but it was mistakes that were costly but I have to give great credit to the boys who hadn’t trained and played despite feeling the full affects of the flu virus.

Next game was Dumbarton away, a very difficult place to go. We started the game very well and then conceded a goal on 25 mins from Ally Roy but we were level five minutes later when Nicky Cadden’s free kick was dropped by Gallacher and Craig Halkett scored. Just before halftime Scott Pittman scored with a composed finish after a great team passing goal that was started by Neil Alexander who played the ball from defence through midfield for Scott to score. Second half we kept up our intensity and scored when Raffa worked his way to the byline before picking out Dylan Mackin to score. We scored our fourth goal when Scott Robinson scored with a good finish into the bottom corner.

Our last game we travelled north to play Inverness, this was another difficult game with them being one of the form teams in the league. We fell behind in six mins when Doran’s scored from just inside the box then Inverness had Ian Vigurs sent off just before halftime. I thought his second yellow was a bit unfortunate as it was an accidental kick on Craig Halkett. This made the second half difficult, they don’t concede many goals and having a man down they were working extremely hard to hold on to the lead. We had to be patient and keep passing the ball and we made them work hard. Our patience paid off and we scored a great header from Alan Lithgow to get us back on level terms. In the last minute of injury time Dale had a great chance to win the game when he shot over the bar from close range.

I hope all our fans keep giving the team the support throughout 2018 as it greatly appreciated by everyone at the club.

Hoppy 

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