Motherwell 1-0 Livingston: Kevin Van Veen's penalty decides a game going nowhere

An electric performance from Motherwell this was not, but at least the Steelmen huffed and puffed their way to a second win on the spin. The remarkable thing given the mood music all but a month ago? Kevin Van Veen's penalty was enough to take them to third in the Premiership table. 

Forgiveness for the Sligo Rovers debacle might still be some way away, but mark this down as another show of penance to the Fir Park faithful. 

Kevin van Veen's penalty decided the contest

It’ll come as no surprise that two teams who won last week decided less was more with regards to the changes. Ricki Lamie, taking the place of Bevis Mugabi, was the only one, the latter no doubt relieved at escaping the daunting task of marshalling Joel Nouble. Within five minutes, we saw why. 

Maybe it’s the fact he’s finally scoring goals, but the air of nervousness whenever Nouble strode onto the ball was apparent. Lighting the touchpaper on the game’s first real attack, he dropped short, held off his marker, and prodded the ball into Nicky Devlin. His shot was firm but straight at Liam Kelly. 

The vigour of that Livi rampage up the park had suggested there might be some excitement on the way. But, oh boy, the truth could not have been further from that assumption had it been uttered by the mouth of America’s 45th president.

Any notion that Nouble had lit a spark under this game was soon gone with the wind, the match falling into such a dull pattern that the BBC bigwigs might be hauled in front of the Hague should they have the audacity to show it on Sportscene. 

Motherwell were having much of the ball but doing nothing with it, while Livingston had arrived with a sharp plan and were executing it right up until the final third. Jason Holt scuttled around like he always does, Scott Pitmann (in a record 310th Livi appearance) drifted into that pocket just off Nouble that’s so hard to defend, and Stephane Omeonga was tasked with knitting it together. Sometimes he sat deep, at other times he came looking for the ball, but, crucially, he was always an option. 

David Martindale

In contrast, the Steelmen’s game was much harder to neatly assign to a box. Kevin van Veen, Connor Shields and Blair Spittal ran about a bit, and Dean Cornelius was as sprightly as ever, but too often the final pass was delayed (giving Livi time to spring the offside trap), or misplaced entirely. There just wasn’t any real cohesion. 

Was the most galling thing the fact this was hardly the nadir of their season so far? Or, was that a crumb of comfort for Stevie Hammell to savour at the break? Either way, a Lamie header - which, admittedly, he should have scored - and a Spittal effort wide were about the sum of their efforts in the first half. 

Livingston, who also saw a Sean Kelly free kick arrow beyond Kelly’s post, had just about edged it, but in the same way someone has to edge the race to be prime minister. There were/are no winners as far as either is concerned. 

Anyway, that was the first half. The second was, well, much of the same until the penalty. There was certainly a touch more oomph to the Steelmen. Van Veen arrowed an effort into Shamal George’s side netting. Spittal finally made some headway. Even Stephen O’Donnell threatened to inject some life into the contest. 

A goalless, utterly forgettable draw, however, did look nailed on when a corner was floated to the back post and headed against Andrew Shinnie. After a moment’s hesitation, Nick Walsh decided it had been a handball. Shinnie protested. David Martindale wore the look of a man who’d just seen his October gas bill. Van Veen coolly slotted it into the corner for his third goal in four games. 

Livingston could have no real complaints. They'd been dreadful since the break and any hope of salvaging a draw went when Dylan Bahamboula was sent off for two immediate yellows. The wait for a win over Motherwell goes on.