No substitute for attack vows proud Hegarty

Mar 26 2009 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

PAUL HEGARTY admits he will always go for broke in his bid to take Livingston back to the SPL.

With this side 3-1 down at Palmerston on Saturday the Lions boss threw caution to the wind and ended the match with four strikers on the field.

It proved to be a brave and inspired call as Livi fought back to earn a share of the points but Hegarty admits it was an easy decision to make.

He said: “We had to do something as there is no point accepting a 3-1 defeat. I’d rather ‘go for it’ and lose 4-1.

“You are beaten anyway at that point so I decided to go 3-4-3 and ended up with four strikers on the park in Rafa De Vita, Griffiths, One and Winters and we managed to pull the game back to 3-3.

“They were substitutions which were needed to be done because Macdonald and McParland had been ill with a virus through the week and were tiring.

“We knew they’d have to come off but sometimes a manager’s subs can really work in your favour as they did for us.”

David Winters and Leigh Griffiths snatched a dramatic last gasp draw for Livi with two goals in the final two minutes although Hegarty admits to being stunned at his team’s refusal to throw in the towel.

He continued: “The boys were magnificent but we should have had the game sewn up at half-time.

“Sparky (Leigh Griffiths) has been lethal recently but he couldn’t find a way past their keeper in the first half while Armand One also had a good chance.

“When you fall 2-0 and then 3-1 behind you have to ask the players what they have in their locker. The answer this week was a lot of fight and resilience.”

Five of Saturday’s starting eleven were graduates of the clubs youth system and the Livi boss insists while he is in the hotseat age will never be a barrier.

“Graeme Robertson and the youth system here deserve a lot of credit for the amount of youth team players in the first team now,” he said.

“If you are a youngster and want to learn your trade in Scottish football then I think this club is the perfect advert for youth football.

“We believe if you are good enough then you are old enough and you will play. I will always make bold decisions and play youngsters and they have justified that by shining through on a Saturday for us.”

One such youth team graduate is Leigh Griffiths who took his tally to 20 goals on Saturday.

Kilmarnock are just one of a host of clubs to have checked in on the 18-year-old this season who is just four goals behind Kris Boyd at the top of the goal scoring charts for the whole of Scotland.

Hegarty admitted: “Griffiths is on fire right now but his fitness levels and work rate are just as impressive to me as his goals.

“But it’s not just him and everyone in the team has been doing well for us.

“Clubs will be looking at our players at the moment and when they do it shows we are doing well and something right.”

Scotland’s crunch international date with Holland means the First Division action takes a week off but Livingston will still be action with a close doors game as Hegarty looks to break some of his injured stars back into action.

He added: “We have a closed door game on Friday against Airdrie United to give guys like Dave Mackay and Liam Fox a run out. “Although Airdrie are in the same league as us we don’t play them again this season so we were delighted to arrange a game against them to keep us ticking over and give some of the boys a chance to edge back to fitness.”