Livi produced a thoroughly professional display to ease past Peterhead and book their place in the fourth round of the William Hill Scottish Cup on a bitterly cold afternoon at the Balmoor Stadium.

The Lions were rarely threatened during the 90 minutes as they comfortably negotiated a potential banana skin against a Blue Toon side fresh from a seven-goal drubbing of Cowdenbeath seven days earlier.

Livi boss Mark Burchill made two changes to the side that held Championship leaders Rangers to a draw the week before as Myles Hippolyte and Jordyn Sheerin were replaced by Liam Buchanan and Gary Glen.

The Lions almost made the breakthrough inside five minutes as Buchanan found space and fired in a low shot which Graham Smith did well to parry before Glen sent the rebound wide. The deadlock was eventually broken on 14 minutes when a loose ball broke to Glen and he slammed his effort high into the net from close range.

Within ten minutes the Lions had a second goal when Buchanan showed terrific skill to reach the byline and cut the ball back for White to calmly slot home and give the Lions a vital cushion. Livi thought they had a third on 35 minutes when Declan Gallagher headed the ball into the net but he was denied by the linesman’s flag for offside.

A couple of quickfire bookings for Kieran Gibbons and Jackson Longridge were the final acts of note in the half as Livi headed in for the interval with one foot in the fourth round draw.

Half-time: Peterhead 0-2 Livingston

The second half was very slow in getting going as Livi comfortably kept the sporadic attacks of the home side at bay – the first action of note was fully ten minutes into the half when Peterhead’s Rory McAllister talked his way into ref Crawford Allan’s book. A few minutes later, the hosts’ desperation to get back into the game caught them out as sub Shane Sutherland threw himself to the ground without the aid of contact from Livi keeper Marc McCallum, earning himself a deserved yellow card from the referee for simulation, or cheating.

 After those brief, and fairly tame, threats from the hosts, Livi stormed straight up the other end and put the game to bed once and for all when Buchanan burst clear and saw his low effort blocked by Smith but White was on hand to fire home a first-time effort on the rebound and make it 3-0.

Livi then made their three subs in quick succession as Hippolyte, Sheerin and Ryan Currie came on for Faria, Glen and Longridge. Hippolyte was quickly involved and produced a couple of fine runs but was unable to force an effort on goal.

Peterhead snatched a scarcely-deserved consolation in injury time when McAllister was fouled in the box by Hippolyte and he stepped up to send McCallum the wrong way from the spot. There was barely time for the game to restart before the referee called time on proceedings and the Lions had sealed their fourth round spot.

Full-time: Peterhead 1-3 Livingston

Next up for Livi is a trip to third-placed Falkirk this Saturday where the Lions will be looking to pull further clear of the drop zone.

Peterhead: Smith, Blockley, Redman, Strachan, Noble, Brown (Ferries 75), Dzierzawsk, Ferry, Riley (Sutherland 60), McAllister, McIntosh (Rodgers 75)
Subs not used: Stevenson, Adams, Jarvie
Goals: McAllister (90 pen)

Livingston: McCallum, Neill, Gordon, Gallagher, Longridge (Currie 83), Pittman, Glen (Sheerin 83), Faria (Hippolyte 76), Gibbons, White, Buchanan
Subs not used: Jamieson, Millen, Georgiev
Goals: Glen (14), White (25 & 74)

Referee: Crawford Allan
Att: 587
Match Report: Andy Crawford

Footage courtesy of BlueToonTV

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