Smash and grab steals the points from Livi

Apr 23 2009 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

Livingston 0 Dundee 1

PAUL HEGARTY was left wondering quite how his side were left without at least a share of the points on Saturday after dominating against Dundee at Almondvale.

The Lions were well on top for most of the game but were hit with a suckerpunch as the visitors took all three points by scoring the game’s only goal with their one chance of the match.

Dundee’s match winner was midfielder Darren Young, who marked his debut with a goal just after the hour mark, on a day when Livingston’s second home defeat on the bounce has seen them slip from third to fifth.

The two defeats have also seen them overtaken by both sides which have left West Lothian with the points.

Hegarty had spoken optimistically just a fortnight ago about his side’s promotion hopes but now the Lions are being forced to look a little nervously over their shoulder as they slide down the table.

Livingston flew out of the traps and although they dominated the early going they rarely threatened the Dundee goal.

But that changed on the quarter-hour mark when Armand One’s low drive was finger-tipped around the post by Rab Douglas.

Almondvale top-gun Leigh Griffiths has been in deadly form this year with an impressive 20-goal haul but the 18-year-old’s touch denied him a goalscoring chance midway through the first half when, as he burst clean through on goal, he stood on the ball and the chance fizzled away.

And three minutes before the break only the width of the upright denied the home crowd the opening goal when Liam Fox crashed a drive against the base of the post.

It was more of the same in the second half as Livi continued to take the game to Dundee and Fox again rattled the post with a curling effort on 56 minutes.

But it was Dundee who took the lead just five minutes later with their first chance of the game.

The West Lothian side thought they had survived when McKenzie produced a stunning one-handed save to deny Mickael Antoine-Curier but the loose ball was bundled into the net by debutant Young.

The game ended with the Lions throwing everything forward in their bid to haul back the Dark Blues.

Armand One had a header easily gathered by keeper Rab Douglas before a frantic final few minutes saw a sending off and a hat-trick of chances for the hosts.

There was just a minute left to play when Dundee stopper Gary McKenzie was ordered off. He was already on a booking after a first half foul on livewire Griffiths when he picked up his marching orders for deliberate handball.

And it could have been worse for the Taysiders as the resulting free kick ran all the way through to the unmarked Chris Malone at the back post but his free header lacked the power to really trouble Douglas.

A deflected drive from Griffiths spun just away from the far post before the First Division’s top scorer had his final and his best chance of the match in stoppage time when he latched onto an One flick on but with just Douglas to beat he blazed the ball high and wide from 12 yards.

Livingston boss Paul Hegarty admitted: “Goals win you games and Dundee scored more than us so they won it. I do think we deserved a point if not three from the game as we dominated it, especially in the first half.

“We’ve hit the post twice and missed a few chances and I can’t fault the players or their attitude.”