LIVINGSTON 2-0 QUEEN OF THE SOUTH

20th December 2008

TEAM LINE-UP

Halliwell

Reid

Barr

O'Connor

McQuilken

McGowan

Simmons

Macfarlane

Kinniburgh

Kean

Dobbie

SUBSTITUTES

- 62

Thomson

- 71

Weatherston

- 83

Robertson

Parratt

Scally

MATCH REPORT

Queens Team:

1 B Halliwell, 2 C Reid, 3 J McQuilken, 4 N MacFarlane, 5 S O'Connor, 6 C Barr, 7 M McGowan, 8 S Simmons, 9 S Kean, 10 S Dobbie, 11 S Kinniburgh

Subs: 12 N Scally, 14 S Robertson, 15 D Weatherston, 16 J Thomson, 17 T Parratt

Livingston Team:

1 R McKenzie, 2 D MacKay, 3 J Talbot, 4 J McPake, 5 M Davidson, 6 C Innes, 7 A McParland, 8 R Quinn, 9 C Elliot, 10 L Griffiths, 11 J Hamill

Subs: 12 C McDonald, 14 G Miller, 15 K Jacobs, 16 G Smith, 18 P Martini

When Neil Scally broke his ankle at Dunfermline the Saturday before Christmas 2007 I doubt he expected to be out of action for a year. He'd have been even more surprised no doubt to learn the next time he'd be named in a matchday sixteen would be as a goalkeeper! But that was the position 'Scal' found himself in today at Livingston, backing Bryn Halliwell up from the bench thanks to injury to Cammy Bell. There were other problems too and it was a cobbled together side that Gordon Chisholm was able to field with centre forward Sean O'Connor starting at centre half, Craig Reid back from over a month out injured and straight into the starting eleven and Steven Kinniburgh making his debut following his loan move from Rangers. In the absence of Thomson, Aitken and Tosh, Neil MacFarlane took over as captain for the day. Paul Hegarty on the other hand had the luxury of a full squad to pick from after the dream start to his term as manager he experienced last week with a 4-1 win at Ross County.

Livi had most of the early possession although Dobbie twice worked nice openings in the first quarter hour without really troubling McKenzie. It was 28 minutes before a serious chance of note arrived when Bryn Halliwell was well positioned to save Griffiths header from MacKay's cross. On 35 minutes Sean O'Connor produced a fantastic sliding challenge to rob young Griffiths of the ball as he bore down on goal. Just before the interval Craig Barr picked up a yellow card for a late challenge on Callum Elliot on halfway. Their feud continued a moment or two later when Elliot 'made sure' that Barr cannoned into the pitchside wallwhen he was seeing the ball out of play. It's a measure perhaps though of how little goalmouth action there actually was in the first half that such an incident merits comment!

Neither team made any changes at half time and Livi were first on the offensive when Joe Hamill's volley cleared the crossbar by a couple of feet. Two minutes later Livi spurned a great opportunity when a suspiciously offside looking Callum Elliot broke clear on goal but dallied too long and was denied by a tremendous McQuilken tackle and Craig Reid followed up to clear the loose ball. The breakthrough was delayed only seconds though. Steven Kinniburgh was booked for a bad tackle out wide and, when the cross came in, Elliot headed on and James McPake was all alone to head past Halliwell.

Disaster struck again on 55 minutes as Callum Elliot collected a loose ball in the penalty area and turned past Reid before beating Halliwell at his near post in the bottom corner from 12 yards.

Dobbie curled an effort that was easily caught by McKenzie on the hour mark as Queens looked to hit back. Two minutes later Jim Thomson replaced Kinniburgh which meant a number of positional changes. McGowan switched to wide left, Kean dropped into wide right and O'Connor moved up front to partner Dobbie. On 65 minutes Dobbie's curling low free kick was well smothered by McKenzie at his post. Upthe other end, James McPake attempted to double his tally with a spectacular overhead kick but hit it wide of target. A second change followed for Queens as David Weatherston replaced Stephen Dobbie with 18 minutes to go.

There followed a quite incredible incident when Callum Elliot clearly deflected the ball out of play for a Queens throw near halfway. Astonishingly both referee and his assistant failed to notice Elliot miscontrol the ball on its way out of play and awarded the throw to to the home side to general incredulity. Craig Reid managed to get himself booked for his reaction to it. Worse was to follow though as a nothing aerial challenge involving Jim Thomson that saw absolutely no complaint from Livingston was somehow seen as a free kick by referee Mr Brown. Craig Barr had "words" with him over it and was shown a straight red card for his trouble, Mr Brown not even bothering to go with a second yellow first. That meant Sean O'Connor reverting back to centre back with Weatherston up front on his own.

Gordon Chisholm sent Scott Robertson on for Stephen Simmons for the last seven minutes and shortly afterwards Paul Hegarty replaced Leigh Griffiths with Gordon Smith but there was no further incident. The manager will have a task to lift his side before the visit from Dundee after Christmas. Perhaps Santa will bring us three points!