Livi manager frustrated by late leveller

By CALUM LESLIE
Published on 25/02/2013 12:14

GARETH EVANS was left frustrated with a stoppage-time Hamilton equaliser, as 
his Livingston side came within seconds of picking up a 
valuable three points.

Livi had taken a 78th minute lead at New Douglas Park thanks to Iain Russell, but 
Stevie May popped up with 30 seconds left on the clock to secure a point for the home side.

Evans said: “We dominated the football match and had possession of the ball for most of the game, so to lose a 
last-minute goal was really 
disappointing.

“The way we played was excellent. They sat off us and let us have the ball and we knew that it might just take one goal to win the game. Once we got it we maybe thought that was it – and that was possibly the problem in the end, but we have to take it on the chin.”

Ali Crawford and May had early chances that drew good saves from Andy McNeil – the first coming after just 17 
seconds. But Livi took control of the first half thereafter, with efforts from Stefan Scougall, 
Jesus Garcia Tena and Liam Fox all failing to find the net.

David MacKinnon’s low shot early in the second half was well tipped wide by McNeil, while Scougall was crowded out in the Accies box after bursting free of their back line on 68 minutes.

The visitors had enjoyed plenty possession without testing home stopper Kevin Cuthbert too often, but they grabbed the opening goal with 12 minutes left on the clock.

Good work down the right from Danny Mullen eventually got the ball to Russell six yards out, and he defied the efforts of Cuthbert to force the ball over the line.

If that was a scrappy goal, the home side’s dramatic equaliser was of a similar mould. Play was well into time added on when the ball spun loose ten yards out from the visitors’ goal, and May’s scuffed shot spun off a Livi boot and McNeil’s fingertips before trundling over the line.