Dundee United boss Csaba Laszlo felt his players didn’t deserve the agonising defeat they suffered at Livingston last night.
Ryan Hardie smashed home the winner in injury-time to make it 2-1 to Livi after the Tangerines had looked to be the team that would go on and win this Championship clash at the Tony Macaroni Arena.
Scott Robinson opened the scoring for the hosts on 22 minutes but sub Matty Smith grabbed a fine equaliser for the visitors with a quarter-of-an-hour to go.
The momentum appeared to have swung United’s way and they had opportunities, most notably a shot from Stewart Murdoch in the 90th minute that was pushed past the post by keeper Neil Alexander.
However, Hardie drove a stake into their heart with a winner than left second-placed Livi six points clear of the third-placed Tannadice men.
Laszlo said: “At the moment, what can you say about the boys because they tried really hard in the second half.
“We created chances, scored a goal and I was very confident that we could win the game.
“We had a great chance (Murdoch’s late shot) to get the three points but the goalkeeper saved.
“I think there were only five seconds to go and to lose that goal was very painful.
“I can’t even talk badly about someone because we did have spirit.
“Generally, we did everything without getting the reward.
“To lose that kind of goal in the last minute is very, very painful for everybody.
“You saw the game and, especially in the second half, the team tried very hard to come back and then try to win. That is a positive.
“You need concentration until the last second so it’s a painful defeat.
“But I don’t think we deserved this defeat.”
Laszlo was asked if the automatic promotion spot was now beyond them.
He replied: “Look, you never know in football.
“We still have 13 games and a lot of things can happen.
“But I don’t think about it.
“The team that wins the league will be the one that wins most points and if you have defeats like this then it is painful.”
As for Livi boss David Hopkin, he was was more interested in staying up than possibly going up!
He said: “I don’t think about that (promotion) but I do think that’s us now safe.
“That was my first job – to keep us in this division.
“I have now told the players to relax and enjoy ourselves.”
