David Martindale bemoans fine margins but demands more from Livingston squad after Aberdeen defeat

David Martindale bemoaned fine margins after his Livingston side lost 1-0 to Aberdeen on Saturday afternoon.

Livingston manager David Martindale after his side were beaten by Aberdeen at Pittodrie. Picture: SNS

The visitors were defeated at Pittodrie thanks to a Bojan Miovski goal on the stroke of half-time.

Martindale wasn’t pleased with the manner in which his side defended the goal, while he also wasn’t enamoured with the way in which they performed on the day.

However, he didn’t think his men were too far away from taking something from the contest back to West Lothian.

"It's a game we should probably have come away with a point from," he said. "I'm not saying Aberdeen didn't deserve all three, but I don't think either team made many chances. They scored theirs and ours got cleared off the line, and that's really the story of the game.

"Aberdeen's defence defended very, very well, whereas we didn't clear our lines properly throughout the first half.

"The goal comes from us not clearing our lines, and our man marking Miovski has switched off. It's a decent finish, but really it comes down to Aberdeen defending their 18-yard box better than we did.

"We weren't our usual selves, we weren't dominant and that was the disappointing aspect."

The result means Livingston have now lost four of their last five and have failed to score in five of their last six.

The strongest contenders to Hearts for third spot not so long ago, they’ve now slipped down to seventh in the table. Martindale has told his players they’ve to show more desire to make the top six again.

“We've not got a divine right. At no point when the fixtures come out that I think we are going to come up to Aberdeen and get three points, it's going to be a difficult game. There wasn't going to be a lot in the game,” he said.

"We've got a points collective that we know we probably have to try and get to make sure we are in the top six come the split but what I've said to the boys, 'it doesn't just come to you, you've got to work, you've got to work extremely hard, you've got to apply yourself.”

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