Marvin Bartley endured a disappointing start to life as Livingston manager as the hosts fell to Scottish Premiership defeat by Falkirk.

An early goal from Kyrell Wilson put the Bairns on the road to victory before Louie Marsh doubled their lead.

The hosts pulled a goal back in the second half, but their long winless run continues.

After just six minutes Barney Stewart carried the ball into the Livingston half before picking out Marsh, but the midfielder’s shot was deflected into the path of Wilson.

The forward controlled the ball quickly and then fired a powerful shot past Jerome Prior from a narrow angle to give Falkirk the lead.

The visitors thought they had doubled their lead three minutes later when Stewart headed in from a Calvin Miller cross but a video assistant referee (VAR) review showed the in-form striker had just drifted offside.

Livingston were moving the ball about well when in possession but Falkirk were on top and settled into their familiar style. Their attacking intent was rewarded with a second goal after 25 minutes.

Miller took a corner from the right that was headed to the back post by Stewart and Marsh was on hand to finish from just a couple of yards out.

That was enough to give the visitors a comfortable half-time lead but after the restart, Livingston quickly got back into the game.

An almighty scramble in the Falkirk box saw the ball fall to Connor McLennan and he prodded an instinctive finish past Scott Bain to pull a goal back.

That gave Bartley’s side belief and they began to get on the front foot more, opening up the game to chances for both sides.

At the end of a neat passing move, Miller raced through and rounded Jerome Prior but the Falkirk winger saw his shot bounce back off the post.

Livingston threw everything at it in the latter stages but couldn’t find the goal they needed to prevent Bartley’s first game as boss ending in defeat.

Livingston manager Marvin Bartley: “When you play games of football and you cost yourself with two goals in the first half, maybe people will say you don’t deserve anything.

“In the second half we got a massive reaction from the players but I told them we shot ourselves in the foot twice with the goals we conceded and we need to eradicate that if we’re to have a chance of staying in this league.

“At half time I told them that at 2-0 down there’s two ways you can look at it. You can say ‘That’s us done’ or you can show a reaction with a bit of fight and a bit of spirit.

“We need to take care of the things we can control and for me we didn’t do that today.

“It’s one game. There will be a lot of learning from that.

“We’ve got a massive game at Celtic Park, and all games are massive for us now, but we’ll look back on that with the staff, tell the players what they did well, what we didn’t do so well, and improve.”

Match report: Andy Coyle

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