Match Report

Saturday, 16th November, 2024

by Ben Kearney

Tete Yengi's cracker opens up Championship title race as John McGlynn is left irked

Falkirk's lead at the top of the William Hill Championship with cut to three points as Livingston edged out a 1-0 win in West Lothian. Tete Yengi's 25-yard screamer four minutes before half time sealed the win for David Martindale's side - with the Bairns punished for a performance that was way off what was required.

Livingston set the tone early on, and they got the better of John McGlynn's team all over the park, with the visiting side unusually slack on the ball and lacking creativity.

And the result now sees the gap at the top of the second tier narrowed to three points when it could have been a significant nine point lead for Falkirk.

"It would have been nice to have a nine point gap, it would have been nice to have a six point gap," boss McGlynn admitted. "The fact is we've got a three point gap in mid-November.

"Back in July or August when we started off we wouldn't have been thinking that we would be in this position. We need to learn from today and realise that there is still so much to play for.

"We didn't turn up the way we wanted to in the first half, we were poor. They deserved to be in front. We competed better in the second half.

"It was very similar to the last game (against Livingston) - there was nothing in it. If you look at the stats, neither goalkeeper had it very much today. Their guy hits a great shot, it goes in."

Losing the "battle" against Livingston was what left McGlynn particularly frustrated, with the Bairns guilty of trying to do ‘plan A' better when it clearly wasn't working.

The midfield trio of Dylan Tait, Brad Spencer and Aidan Nesbitt could't influence the match - and it the key battles across the pitch all went in favour of the hosts.

"We didn't get to play our natural game which we've got to deal with better," McGlynn added. "We probably had to compete better, we didn't win enough 50-50s.

"They were much more aggressive and we didn't handle that very well. We kept trying to play our silky soccer when it wasn't on.

"There was a battle going on and we had to recognise that, the players had to recognise that we weren't going to get away with doing what we do every other week and unfortunately we didn't.

"The message at half time we put across, the guys obviously hadn't taken it on board because we continuously tried to take touches deep in our own half, encouraging the press from them."

Teams

Livingston: Prior, Finlayson, Nottingham, McGowan, Clarke, Pittman, Brandon, Kelly, Yengi (41'), Smith, May.

Subs: Pitaluga, McAlear, Sole, Winter, Green, Shinnie, Muirhead, Wison, Carson.

Falkirk: Hogarth, Adams, Graham, Henderson, McCann, Spencer, Tait, Nesbitt, Miller, Ross, MacIver.

Subs: Hayward, Yeats, Morrison, Agyeman, McKenna, Oliver, Mackie, McCafferty.

Referee: Iain Sneddon.

Attendance: 3,745.