"I've got two starting XIs": Livingston boss David Martindale on the "luxury" of his strength in depth

Livingston manager David Martindale was full of praise for his squad after climbing to fourth in the Premiership with an imposing 3-1 home win over Kilmarnock, despite making five changes to his team.

Joel Nouble scored with a close-range header on his first start since November in the ninth minute before Bruce Anderson doubled the home side's advantage in the 11th minute with an intelligent run and first-time shot on he volley across goal. In the 28th minute, Stephen Kelly made it 3-0 with a sweetly-struck side-foot volley inside the box.

Martindale said: “For a twenty-minute spell, we scored three goals and I thought the boys before that were fantastic. I thought the quality of the finishes and how we progressed the ball into the final third and what we did, the execution in the final third, was fantastic. We were electric in the first half."

“It's wee patterns of play we work on, get the ball on the box and wee Brucey (Anderson) is getting on the end of it, my number eight is then in the correct area for the third goal, so I'm really, really pleased with the goals we scored in the first half.

Livingston's Stephen Kelly celebrates scoring to make it 3-0 with comeback man Joel Nouble, who was also on target. Picture: Paul Devlin / SNS

“I think I had the luxury, but it's a squad that we built and I've been on record saying that I think I've got two starting XIs, no matter who I play; I could drop most players on the team and replace them with a like-for-like player."

For Kilmarnock boss Derek McInnes it was yet another away defeat for the Rugby Park side who are yet to pick up three points on the road in 90 minutes in their first season back in the top-flight.

The Killie manager said: “Listen, I've got a high regard for Livingston and what they do, but it was almost like we hadn't done our homework on them, almost as if we didn't know how to play against them.

“They come at you, they ask the question, and their front-three all enjoyed the game too much in the first period and Christ, we gave them a helping hand to get their goals there's no two ways about it. We were far too passive, far too naive.”