By Ian Steven
Livingston manager David Martindale was left searching for some Christmas spirit after a couple of bewildering decisions by referee Duncan Williams handed a valuable three points to title rivals Ayr United.
The home side were clean through on goal early on with the whistler blowing erroneously for offside, which enraged the home support.
The Lions then found the back of the net after 13 minutes through Tete Yengi, with Williams outlawing the goal for a handball offence, leaving Martindale frustrated as his side fell five points behind Championship leaders Falkirk.
He said: “There’s a couple of big decisions the referee got wrong in the game, in terms of offsides. We’re a 2 v 1 in the first half. Blows the whistle for offside. Linesman doesn’t flag, it’s clearly onside with a 2v1 box.
“And he blows the whistle for offside. He apologised, to be fair to him. Blows the whistle for offside, but then gives us a free kick because he got it wrong in a 2v1 situation in the first half.
“He apologised, which I’ll take, but it’s all baffling how if the linesman’s not flagged, he arrives at the decision that he’s offside.
“So then we’ve got the ball in the net, and then the whistle goes after the ball’s in the net.
“So I think what he’s saying is Tete Yengi took his touch, it came up at his hand, and he scored. But the ball was in the net before the whistle went. There was a bit of a delay, maybe three, four seconds of a delay. We obviously all felt that was a goal. So I’ve not looked at that back to see if it was a handball.
“But that’s not why we lost the game. We don’t defend a throw in our final third, I think we created some really good chances in the game. We had enough possession in the game, we had enough control in the game, and enough entries into the opponent’s box.
“Their keeper’s came off with probably two or three big saves. I don’t think he was busy, but I think he came up with two or three big saves. One was actually from a Michael Nottingham, corner. Good save, down to his left. There was one from Tete Yengi, good save around the post. It was actually a really good save for his own defender who heads it over him and he tips it over the bar.
“I don’t think we deserved to lose it, but if I’m being really honest, I think we probably nicked three points down there. They’ve probably nicked three points here. I think both games were probably draws at the end of the day so it probably balances itself out.”
It was an uncharacteristic moment of slackness in defence that gifted The Honest Men the three points as the Lions did not clear their lines at a thrown in, allowing Jay Henderson drilled a low cross into the box for George Oakley to stab past a stranded Jerome Prior.
Drama ensued in the final seconds as Paddy Reading flicked a Michael Nottingham throw in towards his goal, with Harry Stone pulling off a stunning save to deny an equaliser, leaving Martindale frantically battering his calculator to determine the statistical changes of promotion in West Lothian.
“The one thing we’ve had all season I would probably say is consistency,” he added.
“That’s something that we work on, it’s something that we try to do. Approach each game with the same kind of mindset, same kind of philosophy, same kind of intent. You’re not always going to be able to do that, but over the course of 18 games, that’s us lost two games. I think we finished the first nine games on 19 points.
“We finished this batch of games on 17 points. So it’s 36 points over 18 games, which is two points per game. Which isn’t a million miles away from where I felt we needed to be.
“In terms of that two points per game, I feel if you can get that two points consistency over the course of 36 games, you’re going to have a right good chance of winning the league, or you’ll definitely be in the play offs. It’s probably enough. Our objective at the start of the year is to try and get back to the Premier League. “