Livingston manager Gary Holt believes his side got back to what they do best in the 1–1 draw against Ross County.
The Lions upped their intensity levels in the second half to secure a point, with Nicky Devlin’s equaliser cancelling out Oli Shaw’s opener.
At the interval, Holt told his players that they could not afford to leave anything on the pitch before full-time, and he believes he got exactly that.
“We got right in their faces and made it uncomfortable for them, but saying that I don’t think we were under too much pressure in the first half,” he explained.
“I asked them at half-time to come in with no ‘if only’s’, and I got that – they came in and they were bust.
“That’s all I ask, we spoke earlier in the week about what Livingston are synonymous with – hard work and ugly, but we can play football at times when we get it in the right areas.
“We needed to get back to that, and I certainly think that’s what I got.”
Ross County manager Stuart Kettlewell was disappointed his team could not hold on to their lead.
Shaw scored his second goal in as many games to give the Staggies a first-half advantage, but were pegged back and could not find a late winner to restore their position.
However, Kettlewell feels his side – especially the younger members of the team – will have gained a lot from a match where they had to battle constantly throughout the 90 minutes.
“We speak about it a lot, if you get your nose in front you want to hold that lead and try and build on it, so the frustration for me was that we weren’t able to keep that clean sheet,” he said.
“I thought our play merited it to be honest, we dealt with the combative nature of Livingston.
“We had a lot of young players out on the pitch, and I believe they will come out of that match better for having to deal with the physical contact.
“When they got to play, I thought they showed decent imagination in the middle of the pitch as well, so there’s a lot of positives.
“We’re in the business of trying to win football matches though, so we need to see if we can take that extra step.”
