Livingston will play Dundee or Ross County in the Scottish Premiership play-off final after a 4-0 aggregate win against Partick Thistle.

David Martindale’s side had led 2-0 from Tuesday’s semi-final first leg at Firhill and Jamie Brandon and Stevie May strikes eased their passage to the final.

Sunday’s final Premiership bottom-six fixtures will decide which team Livi face next, with County currently occupying the dreaded second-bottom position and Dundee two points ahead. Dundee visit St Johnstone while County are at home to Motherwell.

Thistle tried to create some moments of panic in the Livi box with some piercing balls from wide areas but they struggled to really test goalkeeper Jerome Prior.

Logan Chalmers had two efforts off target, the first a free-kick, and captain and co-manager Brian Graham could only force a comfortable stop for Prior from outside the area.

The hosts were edging more and more to the two-legged final and captain Brandon held off Stuart Bannigan to send a diagonal shot through goalkeeper David Mitchell as half-time neared.

Livingston continued to absorb Thistle advances in the second period and substitute May’s delightful lob from the edge of the box ended the tie as a contest.

Martindale’s side now have the chance to return to the top flight a year after relegation.

And there has been news off the field as well, with the club announcing a new majority shareholder and chairman in the shape of American businessman Calvin Ford.

For Thistle, who threatened when Ben Stanway stung the palms of Prior, another year in the Championship beckons amid uncertainty over who will lead that campaign.

Women’s team boss Graham and Mark Wilson have overseen the men’s first team since Kris Doolan’s departure in February but the co-managers were only given charge until the end of the season.

Graham will take charge of Thistle’s final SWPL fixture away to Spartans on Sunday.

Livingston manager David Martindale: “Delighted we’re through. Two clean sheets, four goals. We found a way in the first half. The second half was more of a dominant possession, we weren’t under any real pressure in the second half.”

Livingston midfielder Stephen Kelly: “Feels really good. We’ve got a push to go but it feels good. Fair play to Partick, they really came out the traps fast and played some good stuff. It took us a while to get to grips to it. The goal settled us. We started the second half pretty well. It’s a pretty special [from Stevie May].”

Livingston scorer Stevie May: “It just kind of broke to me. I saw the keeper slightly off so I thought, ‘take a chance’ and thankfully it was in and it tied the bow on the tie and put us through. We believe in ourselves to see out games and get results when it matters most. We’ve hit form at the right time.”

Livingston scorer Jamie Brandon: “We’ll go and approach the game as best we can and hope it’ll be enough to get to the Premiership. We’ll go into next week with the belief we’re good enough to go and do what we need to do.”

Match Report: Andy Campbell

Share this: