Livingston's Brooklyn Kabongolo scores to make it 1-1 during a William Hill Premiership match between Livingston and St Mirren at the Home of the Set Fare ArenaImage source, SNS
Image caption,

Brooklyn Kabongolo salvaged a draw for Livingston against St Mirren

At a glance

  • Nlundulu's powerful first-half header has St Mirren on course for a first Premiership win on the road since September

  • Kabongolo nods basement side Livingston level with a goal out of nowhere

  • Hosts move to within seven points of 11th placed Kilmarnock, while visitors shift three points clear with a game in hand

ByAmy Canavan
BBC Sport Scotland at Home of the Set Fare Arena

Defender Brooklyn Kabongolo scored for the second game running as Scottish Premiership basement side Livingston rescued a point against stumbling St Mirren.

Six days on from his venomous volley in the draw with Rangers, the Frenchman found himself unmarked in the box to sumptuously head home from debutant Barrie McKay's magnificent cross.

It was completely out the blue for Marvin Bartley's side, who failed to follow up last weekend's heroic performance and seldom troubled the Buddies in a low-quality game.

For long enough, Stephen Robinson would not have been bothered by the standard on display as his side looked comfortable for a first win away in the league since 13 September, courtesy of Dan Nlundulu's thumping header.

The striker powered his first-half effort beyond Jerome Prior, but Livi were left furious, sure that he handled the ball earlier in the build-up when he was down on the deck.

Referee Don Robertson was met with boos at half-time from the home fans for the decision, but they might have been equally venting their frustration at their own side's showing.

Things markedly improved after Kabongolo's galvanising goal, but despite a late onslaught, Livi couldn't dig out a much-needed winner.

With Kilmarnock's heavy defeat at Falkirk, Livi are now seven points off 11th, while the Buddies are three points clear of Neil McCann's side with a game in hand.

Analysis: Draw doesn’t do much for either side

Given Livingston had not won in the league in 203 days and St Mirren had not picked up a victory on the road in 168 days, expectations for a classic were low.

What transpired was, for the most part, terrible.

The Buddies started brightly, with Jayden Richardson climbing and heading a decent effort on goal, only for it crash off the crossbar with the faintest of touches from home goalkeeper Jerome Prior, but it was not a sign for things to come.

The first half was flat, with balls being lumped from one end of the pitch to the other in the West Lothian rain.

Nlundulu's header on the cusp of half-time woke fans up in the ground, who would have been forgiven for falling asleep. Many had their heads in their hands.

They remained there for much of the second half, where it looked like St Mirren were cruising, without having to do much, and ending their three-game losing streak.

Then, Kabongolo, rather inexplicably and surprisingly, was all alone in the box.

Completely different to his finish last week, the defender showed great quality to haul Livi back level.

The issue is, Livi are not in the market for draws, they desperately need wins.

They pushed for it, while the Saints sat back - their last shot came in the 64th minute.

Robinson admitted they tried to protect their lead too early, and while he accepted the point gained was fair, he added it was perhaps something of a missed opportunity, given the thrashing Killie suffered.

Bartley is backing his players and believes they have more than enough to pull off the great escape, but if today’s performance was anything to go by, that seems a huge challenge.

What they said

Livingston manager Marvin Bartley: "My biggest thing with the players is mistakes are always going to happen in games of football, it's about your reaction and we just felt a little bit nervous out there today.

"We'll keep chipping away until we get to the split and then we'll see where we're at, but this team's more than good enough to do so.

"You know we will not give up. We will get out of this situation we're currently in."

St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson: "I think it's a point gained.

"Any point away from home is a positive, we felt we could add three points, they had that one opportunity and score from it, it's a long looking ball into the box, we just didn't defend it properly.

"Then when they scored we went back again and got hold of the ball again and started to create a little bit more but probably overall a result, a point is a first result."

What's next for these teams?

Livingston are nOt in action for another two weeks, when they make the short trip to Hibernian on Saturday, 14 March (15:00 GMT) in the league.

St Mirren have two games before then, starting with a trip to Dundee United on Tuesday (19:45) before their Scottish Cup quarter-final game at home to Partick Thistle on Sunday, 8 March (19:30) - live on BBC Scotland.

Player of the match

Number: 18 J. Bokila
Average rating 10.00
Number: 18 J. Bokila
Average Rating: 10.00
Number: 15 L. Smith
Average Rating: 8.50
Number: 23 B. Kabongolo
Average Rating: 8.00
Number: 24 M. Sylla
Average Rating: 7.67
Number: 28 J. Prior
Average Rating: 7.20
Number: 3 Babacar Fati
Average Rating: 7.00
Number: 25 M. Tait
Average Rating: 7.00
Number: 8 S. Pittman
Average Rating: 7.00
Number: 7 J. Nouble
Average Rating: 6.67
Number: 9 R. Muirhead
Average Rating: 6.50
Number: 27 D. Wilson
Average Rating: 5.67
Number: 20 E. Danso
Average Rating: 5.67
Number: 19 D. Finlayson
Average Rating: 5.50
Number: 5 R. McGowan
Average Rating: 4.00
Number: 10 B. McKay
Average Rating: 1.00

After the opportunity to rate players has closed, the score displayed represents the average from all the submissions by BBC Sport users.