Goodwin salutes St Mirren resilience after win over Livingston

St Mirren manager Jim Goodwin hailed his side’s determination as they defeated Livingston 1-0 to register back-to-back victories.

A first-half strike from midfielder Ethan Erhahon was enough to stretch the Buddies’ unbeaten run to five matches and lift them up to seventh in the Premiership table.

After a stirring 3-2 success against Aberdeen to register a first league win of the season in their last outing, the Paisley outfit had to draw on reserves of determination and spirit to see off their hosts.

Goodwin said: “It’s very rare you see an attractive and entertaining game of football here.

“Some of that is down to the pitch and the way Livingston get stuck in. You need to give them credit for that but any side in the Premiership would come here and take a 1-0 win all day long.

“We would obviously have loved to have played a bit more possession-based football and try and dominate the game that way.

“But I said to the boys before a ball was kicked that I didn’t care how we got the result just as long as we came away with all three points.

“Putting together back-to-back victories was the most important thing and we managed to grind out the result.

“We’ve now won two games back to back which is a difficult thing to do.

“We have a bit of consistency now and we have played better than we have shown. We stood up to everything Livingston had to throw at us and they will feel unlucky not to have taken a point.”

Livingston manager David Martindale insisted his side merited more from their performance and confessed the winning strike should never have beaten goalkeeper Max Stryjek.

The Pole got down to his left but allowed Erhahon’s shot to slip through his hands.

Martindale said: “Overall, I felt we deserved more from the game. But I’m standing here talking about getting beat again.

“It’s a goalkeeping mistake, Max has got to save it. End of, done.

“It’s a shot from a wide area. It’s not a great finish, it’s not a great goal. Jim will be delighted but I’m raging.

“I don’t care what anybody says, I don’t think we deserved to lose that game.

“On the balance of play we deserved more from the game. The players gave it everything and they were really unlucky.

“Do I think we were the better team? Yes, I do. Do I think we had the better chances? Yes, I do.”