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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Callum Carson

Livingston boss 'disappointed' in manner of goals conceded in Celtic loss

Livingston boss David Martindale admitted Celtic were well worth the three points as the Hoops secured a 3-0 win at the Tony Macaroni Arena.

But the Lions gaffer confessed he was frustrated by the manner of the goals conceded - because they were all situations that had been brought up during the week.

Kyogo Furuhashi was given too much space as he fired Celtic into a 10th minute lead before Greg Taylor fizzed a 25-yard strike through the legs of an unsighted Jack Hamilton who was making his debut in the Livi goal with regular no.1 Shamal George injured.

Jota completed the scoring four minutes from time to wrap up the three points.

Martindale commented: "I'm disappointed but Celtic deserved the three points. I think the goals we lost are avoidable.

"The first goal we worked on. That wasn't an area where I wanted the centre-back to be. We worked on it all week. The centre-half comes into an area that should be a midfield press and that then opens up the space for wee Kyogo. It's a very good finish but our keeper is a bit too aggressive in his positioning."

He added: "The second goal is a sloppy ball into the midfield area and that's where they're really strong. I spoke about it, not doing that. They get a turnover and then a shot from 25-yards that my keeper has to do better with and the third goal is very naive because we were claiming for offside.

"I've been hammering it home that you can't stop now with VAR. You stop at the referee's whistle. Wee Steph (Omeonga) is claiming for offside and that then allows Jota in. It was naive."

Hamilton was deputising for the injured George but was unable to have a debut to remember for the Lions. Martindale admitted the former Colchester United man could have played, but didn't want to run the risk of aggravating the muscle strain sustained last week at Ibrox.

He said: "There's times we've played Rangers and Celtic and it's backs to the wall. Shots hit off the post, the bar, but that didn't happen today. We limited them but I'm disappointed that 50 per cent of their shots on target went in.

"They weren't necessarily great goalscoring opportunities. Taylor's 25 yards out, Kyogo was on the diagonal. From our coaching point of view, it was disappointing.

"Shamal should be back for Friday (away at Kilmarnock). We missed him. I threw Jack in at the deep end a bit although he should have done better with a couple of the goals. Shamal probably could have played today but he might not have been available for the two or three games after that and that was the big thing.

"Do I gamble on Shamal and maybe lose him? That was where I was. Hopefully he'll be training come Tuesday."

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