Livingston boss likes attitude as Jacobs' cracker seals point

Livingston manager Gary Holt was encouraged by the fact his team were disappointed despite extending their unbeaten league run to seven matches.

206/10/18 LADBROKES PREMIERSHIP MOTHERWELL Vs LIVINGSTON (1-1) FIR PARK - MOTHERWELL Livingston's Keaghan Jacobs celebrate his goal

The Lions had fallen behind at Motherwell through a Ryan Bowman first-half goal but Keaghan Jacobs’ spectacular free-kick levelled matters on 64 minutes.

Only champions Celtic have beaten the back-to-back promotion winners in the Premiership this season. Holt was not in charge that day, and is still to taste defeat since coming in at the end of August.

“The good thing for me is that they’re sitting in there disappointed,” he said of his players. “They’re annoyed that they only got a point. That shows how far they’ve come. Teams like Motherwell don’t make it easy for you so to come from behind and scrap to get a point is great. They deserve real credit. The goal is a one-in-a-hundred stroke, 99 times it flies into row Z, and that one time today it went in the top bin. It takes courage to go and hit a shot like that when you’re trailing away from home, knowing that there’s a fair chance it’s going to go in row Z.”

Motherwell manager Stephen Robinson hailed his players for securing a “massive point” as they ended their four-game losing streak.

The hosts had Carl McHugh sent off with 12 minutes to go after picking up two yellow cards in the space of eight minutes, in a result that leaves Robinson’s men sitting anxiously above the relegation trapdoor. With matches coming up against the teams in and around them, the Northern Irishman knows how important a result it may prove to be.

“It was vital to get a point,” he said. “When you’ve lost four games like we have and things go against you, it can be easy to fall apart. I’ve got to give credit to the resilience and the character of the team.”

Robinson felt that McHugh’s second booking was “extremely harsh”. When asked if he’d spoken to referee Willie Collum about the incident, he replied “What’s the point?”