Yogi insists ‘brave’ Lions merited more

JOHN HUGHES praised his players’ bravery despite watching his Livingston side lose out for the second week in a row on Saturday, as Dundee left West Lothian with a 3-2 victory after a thrilling 90 minutes.

Marc McNulty and a Neil McGregor own goal had put Livi 2-1 up after Jamie McCluskey opened the scoring for the visitors, but Carl Finnigan and McCluskey again found the net to secure the points for the Dees.

After a match that flew from end to end, Hughes admitted the result was a tough one to come to terms with.

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He said: “It’s hard to take losing the game. The result was very frustrating having seen the players put so much into the game. Since I’ve been here they’ve been very brave in passing the ball, and when we score we manage to score good goals.

“We know that teams know what our style will be like, they’ll come here and get in about us, and we just need to make sure we pass it quicker and better.”

He added, “To put so much into the game we’re disappointed to get nothing, I thought we deserved something.”

Dundee took the lead after 25 minutes when McCluskey was teed up by Steven Milne, and the winger drilled low across Andy McNeil in the home goal.

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Milne then contrived to miss an open goal when McNeil failed to claim a corner, and minutes later he was made to rue that chance as Keaghan Jacobs slipped in McNulty, who wasted no time in finding the net beyond the advancing Rab Douglas.

After Stefan Scougall saw his spectacular volley held by Douglas just before half time, Dundee defender McGregor turned a Bobby Barr cross into his own net seconds after the restart.

The visitors weren’t behind for long, however, as the ball ricocheted to Finnigan eight yards out on 55 minutes, and despite home calls for offside he buried the ball into the bottom corner.

Bobby Barr and McNulty were denied by defender and goalkeeper as Livi looked to retake the lead, while McNeil was down sharp to save from Finnigan as the game raced towards full time.

And with only two minutes on the clock Dundee snatched the win, with McCluskey forcing a corner over the line from close range.