Livingston Women’s manager Paul Jaconelli admitted that his side were far from their best in their 2-0 win over Morton, writes Angus McGregor.
That’s didn’t dampen his mood at all, though, as they picked up three points and jumped level with Renfrew at the top of the SWF Championship table.
Goals from Jen Dodds and Shannon Mulligan gave the Lionesses the edge in a battling performance at the Tony Macaroni Arena as they continued their perfect home form this season.
The gaffer commented: “We’d have lost that last season. When we had possession we looked to give it away rather than keep it which isn’t like us at all.
“It was disappointing in those areas. However, we were fighting for scraps and with the league we’re in, those scraps can make the difference.”
Livi have now won all four home games this season and heaped praise on the visitors for stifling the home side for large spells.
He said: “Defensively we were pretty sound but we weren’t creative. Morton did stop us from being creative, they worked very hard and last season we maybe wouldn’t have matched that.
“That’s why we’ve won and beat the likes of Renfrew and others around us. I think we needed to add that to our game.
“We battled our way to a result and for me, despite the performance, that is a big positive. The league this season is so competitive that we’re going need to keep that level of battling up, especially when teams around us drop points.”
The victory over Morton sees the first round of fixtures come to an end with each team having played each other once.
Jaconelli is looking to build on their quality and continue their winning form in the next section of the season as they look to mount a sustained promotion challenge.
He added: “Going into the second part, we’re going to build on our technique and get more out of the bigger games. If we hadn’t defended so well, on another day and against another side we may have let them get back into it.”
Livingston have won five of their first seven games, with one draw and one loss each rounding up their first round of fixtures.
The draw came against Dryburgh Athletic, who Livingston will host next Sunday at the Tony Macaroni Arena.
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