By Lewis Laird
Livingston earned themselves another win under interim boss David Martindale with a 2-0 success over Dundee United.
Second-half goals from Scott Pittman and Marvin Bartley secured the three points for the Lions, after what was a close opening half of the match between the two sides.
Proceedings started slowly as both sides tried to sound each other out. The best chance of the first half for United fell to Ian Harkes, a nice move that deserved more. A low cross in from the left perfectly found the feet of the American who made a good run into the box. His effort from around 10-yards out was struck well but eventually blocked by the home defence.
After a sustained spell of pressure from the away side early on, it was Livingston’s turn to be the team on top. Despite not testing Benjamin Siegrist in the United goal all that much, they began to have some nice passages of play, which just did not have the end product that was needed to take the lead.
Going in at half-time goalless was a fair reflection of the game at the break but Martindale’s side opened the scoring just over 10 minutes after half-time. It was a fast move which saw Pittman picking up the ball just inside the United half, before charging at the Arabs defence.
Unchallenged, Pittman got his head up and had a powerful strike from outside the area and found the bottom corner brilliantly. Livingston doubled their lead after 74 minutes and ultimately finished off the game, through an unlikely source as Bartley grabbed his first goal of the season.
A corner into the box troubled the away defence, who failed to clear the ball. This allowed Bartley to capitalise with an acrobatic effort, smashing home from close range.
The away side, who revealed during the week they would be without the entire coaching staff and also nine players, had a strong line-up coming into the game. But in the end, Livi were just too much for the Tannadice side, leaving Martindale with two wins from two as interim boss. Here are three things we learned.
Martindale for manager?
After making it two wins on the bounce, it might be early days, but you would have to think Martindale is more than likely in with a shout for the manager position at Livingston.
In his post-match comments, Martindale also stated he would like the job, so all going well, the job may be his to take if the positive atmosphere continues in the next few weeks.
Structured Livingston
Under Gary Holt, Livingston were always known as a strong side defensively. At the start of this season that started to drop a little. Going off this showing it was much more like it for the Lions who looked organised and more like themselves again.
In the next few games it will be interesting to see if that can continue but if it can, they should become a side who is hard to be beat again.
Dundee United front two
On paper, you could argue that Dundee United have one of the best strike forces in the Scottish Premiership outside the top two.
Lawrence Shankland and Mark McNulty failed to have that impact here though and were frustrated at the lack of service they were getting at the top end of the park. United have had their problems this season but with those two and Nicky Clark all being attacking options for Micky Mellon’s side, they have the firepower to get shooting again.