Livi focused on cup after league loss

GARY BOLLAN is confident his Livingston side will be totally focused on facing Ayr United in the fourth round of the William Hill Scottish Cup tomorrow afternoon after the disappointment of narrowly losing out 2-1 to Falkirk at the Braidwood Motor Company Stadium on Monday.

Ayr and Livi battled out a 0-0 draw in the only meeting between the sides so far this season, with the reverse fixture in December postponed due to snow, and Bollan knows it will be a tough task for the Lions to progress.

The third round saw Livi overcome a tricky away trip to Junior outfit Irvine Meadow, with the Lions leading 4-0 at half time and ending up 6-0 winners. For Bollan and his players tomorrow, however, any win will do.

He said, “As with any cup competition, you want to stay in it for as long as possible and do as well as you possibly can, and with a prestigious competition like the Scottish Cup that is no different. It’s a great opportunity for us tomorrow to put ourselves in the fifth round draw and we’re hoping we’ll get a good crowd to help us get through the 90 minutes.

“In saying all of that, we know that tomorrow will not be an easy match in the slightest. I saw Ayr against Thistle a couple of weeks before Christmas and it was a really hard-fought game. They managed to get a point and then we went to Thistle on the Saturday afterwards and came back with nothing – so we know it’s going to be difficult for us to put ourselves in the hat for the next round.”

The two teams are not unfamiliar with facing up to one another after meeting four times in the Second Division last season. From those matches, Livi come out on top with two wins to Ayr’s one, and one draw, and Bollan is hoping to add to that record after Monday’s defeat.

He added: “Both sides know each other very well from being in the same league last year and we’ve got to make sure we’re spot on in the way we approach tomorrow’s match. We had a disappointing home game against County a few weeks ago, and after two wins away another disappointing game against Falkirk earlier in the week, so we want, come 5pm, to be going home happy.”