St Johnstone’s Premiership crisis is getting deeper by the week.
While those below them are finding form and victories, the Perth side are in freefall.
If you need a result to turn your fortunes around at the moment, Saints are the team to face.
It happened for Ross County last week and this time it was Livingston who got back to winning ways at the expense of Callum Davidson’s outfit.
Saints are now winless in six, have lost their last three and have scored just one goal in five games.
This is now a fight for top flight survival every bit as serious as last year’s.
Key moments
The poor goals Saints are conceding are arriving with alarming regularity.
There were another couple here.
For Livingston’s opener midway through the first half, Bruce Anderson was allowed the freedom of the pitch to take a touch, turn, surge forward and slip a pass through for Joel Nouble who gave Remi Matthews no chance with a clinical finish.
Then on 38 minutes, Cammy MacPherson brought down Anderson 25 yards from goal after failing to control the ball.
Stephen Kelly’s free-kick was a superb one – dipping up and over the wall and in off the inside of Matthews’ right hand post.
In between those two goals there was one disallowed for offside, which took a long time for the VAR check to be concluded.
If Saints were going to find a way back into this contest they needed to score quickly after the re-start.
When Graham Carey blasted a golden opportunity over the bar on 51 minutes, you couldn’t see this ending up anything other than a home win.
A Hallberg volley went just wide and Carey had a shot cleared off the line near the end, when Saints were sustaining some pressure, but Livingston deserved their comfortable victory.
Player ratings
Matthews 6, Wright 5, Gordon 5, McGowan 5, Montgomery 6, MacPherson 5 (Wotherspoon 4), Phillips 5 (Carey 4), Murphy 5 (Rudden 4), Hallberg 5, McLennan 6, May 5.
Saints’ star man – Connor McLennan
The on-loan Aberdeen man has played plenty of different positions in his short time with Saints and this time it was wide right in a 4-5-1.
He was better than most in offering up an out-ball, forced a decent save out of Shamal George with a back post header when it was still 0-0 and teed Carey up with a perfect cut-back not long after the break, which the substitute wasted.
Manager under the microscope
Callum Davidson went with a back four but a change of system didn’t eradicate familiar flaws in his team.
Saints didn’t press with enough vigour, they backed off when they needed to get tight and their striker, Stevie May, was too often isolated.
They’re a team struggling to find a goal, let alone a point or a win.
It’s becoming an increasingly fraught predicament for manager, players and club.
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