Livingston sunk to a sixth straight defeat and goalless November in Paisley, falling 1-0 to St Mirren. A Sean Kelly own goal in the first half was enough to ensure the Lions misery continued into December on a bitterly cold afternoon at the SMISA Stadium.  

Manager David Martindale named three changes to the side that tasted defeat against Rangers 13 days ago, with Cristian Montano, Mo Sangare and Luiyi De Lucas making way for Jason Holt, Michael Nottingham and Kurtis Guthrie.

Action was limited for the opening 30 minutes of the match, with both teams appearing evenly matched and the hosts edging the forward play. Despite this, the first decent effort would fall to Livingston as they hit the crossbar on 33 minutes from the head of Michael Nottingham, who connected with James Penrice’s corner after a flick on.

The hosts would take the lead just four minutes later through an own goal. A clever clip to Greg Kiltie allowed him to hit a shot which was saved by Shamal George, however the ball would ricochet off the unfortunate Sean Kelly and into his own net to give St Mirren a one goal advantage.

It would then be St Mirren’s turn to hit the crossbar. Mandron received the ball on the left of the box, playing a five-yard pass backwards towards Kiltie, who’s cross was met by Jonah Ayunga, with his looping header crashing off the top of the woodwork before going out.

The Buddies may have felt they should have doubled their lead five minutes into the second half. Silky footwork by Ayunga allowed him to dribble into the box, with his pass deflecting off Andrew Shinnie to Mandron. He knocked the ball to the edge of the box for Richard Taylor, who was always leaning back as he blasted the ball over the bar.

Livi would have an effort on the hour mark, with a long throw from Nottingham was knocked on by Guthrie and found Sean Kelly in the middle of the box, however his attempt was high over the bar.

And a minute later, Bruce Anderson had a great opportunity to take the lead and really should have done better. A long ball found Alex Gogic and Anderson tussling for the ball, with the Livi number 9 getting the better of the Cypriot, but his touch was poor and allowed Zach Hemming to collect easily.

St Mirren looked to have wrapped up the points six minutes from time. A free kick whipped in from the right side was knocked back across goal into the path of Tom Parkes who bundled the ball home for the second own goal of the game for the Lions, however VAR would rule the goal out for offside.

Livi almost rescued a point in added time, when a cross from the right found Joel Nouble in space in the box. His volley looked destined for the bottom corner but was saved well by Hemming who turned it round the post. The resulting corner was cleared and allowed Conor McMenamin to go on a lung busting run up the right wing before cutting inside and into the box. He appeared to run out of ideas with his shot was eventually blocked out to O’Hara who shot over the bar.

The result condemned the Lions to their sixth defeat in a row, also going the full of November without a goal.

Match Report: David Hastie

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