 McGuiness, Hay and Keane at Easter Road on Tuesday |
Dominic Keane was forced to tell his players that some of them may be out of a job in less than a week after the club fell into administration on Tuesday. He broke the bad news just minutes after Livi booked their place in the final of the CIS Insurance Cup with a dramatic 1-0 win over Dundee.
The departing chairman said: "It's a really tough week for them and they know that come Monday there will be changes.
"Players in that team tonight will lose their jobs."
Keane has confirmed he signed the papers earlier on Tuesday which hands control of the West Lothian club to the administrators after revealing debts of �3.5m.
This is significantly less than the �10m that reports suggested they owed to main creditor, Halifax Bank of Scotland.
 | Players in that team tonight (Tuesday) will lose their jobs  |
A last-minute Derek Lilley penalty against Dundee - another club in administration - booked Livi's place in their first ever major cup final against either Hibernian or Rangers at Hampden.
But Keane admits several of those players will not be around to play in that game.
Once Sunday's Tennent's Scottish Cup tie against Spartans is over, the cull is set to begin.
Keane said: "The players had a great time after the game for 10 minutes, then I told them the serious part of the business.
"The administrator comes in tomorrow at 12 and I have agreed with him that he will make absolutely no changes before Sunday - I want this team to have a couple of days to relax and enjoy the result."
Keane is confident Livingston will survive the financial crisis and insists he, and lottery winner board member John McGuiness, will eventually attempt to regain control of the club he built from scratch six years ago.
 Lilley's late penalty put Livi into the final |
He added: "Livingston will survive and I hope at some point in the future that I can get it back from these people because they don't deserve it. "John and I made a decision at the weekend, if we can get this club back from these people, we will get it back as soon as we possibly can.
"And when we get it back, never again will anybody take it away from us.
"I thought we could get through until May and make some changes, but when the principal creditor doesn't support you, then you have nowhere else to go."
Livingston manager Davie Hay is hopeful that money earned from reaching the cup final will convince the administrators to wait until after the glamour tie at Hampden before sacking players.
He said: "It would be fantastic and it would be justice, but other clubs have had to suffer too.
"We just need to bond together and do what is required no matter what.
 | We don't have a lot of players in the squad and I hope that the fact we are in a final means that there would be a sympathetic view  |
"We don't have a lot of players in the squad and I hope that the fact we are in a final means that there would be a sympathetic view."
Hay added: "I was sitting next to Dominic and he was delighted and very emotional.
"That game meant more to him than winning any Second or First Division title - even getting to Europe."
Dundee boss Jim Duffy insisted the last-minute penalty - which saw Fernando Pasquinelli hauled down by Brent Sancho and Lee Mair - could have been avoided if there had been better communication between the players and goalkeeper Julian Speroni.
He said: "I don't know whether it was a penalty or not, but we should have dealt with it anyway.
"If it wasn't a penalty then it will make it a little harder to take, but to be honest I don't think I could feel much worse than I do now."