David Martindale full of praise for his players as Livingston beat St Johnstone

Livingston boss David Martindale praised his side’s performance after they picked up an impressive 3-0 win against St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park.

The Lions found themselves ahead after three minutes as Odin Bailey slammed home his first Livingston goal before Bruce Anderson doubled the visitors’ advantage with a calm finish to give them a two-goal half-time cushion.

The visitors stood firm in the second half to deny St Johnstone any route back into the contest and clinically added a third on the break as Scott Pittman tapped home Anderson’s cut-back.

Check out the latest results at soccer today

It was the Almondvale side’s first cinch Premiership victory away from home since February and a third clean sheet of the season, which moves Livingston up to 10th place in the table.

Martindale said: “It was a good result. We knew we were away from home and what St Johnstone are all about as a team, so we came here with a slightly different game plan compared to how we’d normally approach the game, but credit to the players as they win you games of football.

“It’s really difficult to win any game of football away from home outside the top four teams. It’s pleasing to get a win here, score three goals and get a clean sheet because I think the last few times, we’ve come here it has been draws.

“I thought Max Stryjek was excellent and deserves a lot of credit as he had a fantastic save from a cross from St Johnstone’s left-hand side.

“I think we defended well as a unit today which is pleasing and the boys can take a lot of pride from their performance.”

St Johnstone manager Callum Davidson felt his side done the complete opposite to Livingston.

He said: “Right from the start we didn’t do things properly and the first three or four minutes the players did everything that we asked them not to do.

“When you go 1-0 down you’re chasing the game, but when you concede goals like we have today then you’re not going to win football matches.

“I’ve been here for 18 months and we’ve set high standards and one of our strengths is that we do the basics well, defend well and work hard as a team, but today we made far too many individual errors and we’ve given Livingston three of the simplest goals they’ll score all season.”

“It’s not like us, we’ve been really good, but today there were a couple of players who didn’t perform to the level that I would have liked.”

Pick up the latest car results at soccer best tip