David Martindale has told Livingston ’s boo-boys to take a dose of reality and start backing the side.
The Lions boss was left frustrated as his side lost to St Mirren despite meriting more from the game and he admitted the cause wasn’t helped by negative shouts coming from the stands.
He said: “We’ve been a victim of our own success recently and that’s probably why the fans are booing at the end there, because they’re expecting us just to be in the top-six. I think it’s got to be put into perspective.
“The players hear the shouts as well. I don’t care what anybody says, I don’t think they deserved to lose that game today.
“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.
“But it’s football. So support. There’s a clue in the name – supporters.
“I just think ‘Would you pay your money to come and abuse people? Maybe it’s just me.”
Martindale was also facing an anxious wait to see the extent of injuries to Andrew Shinnie and Jack Fitzwater who were both sent to hospital to have knocks assessed
He said: “Today overall, I felt we deserved more from the game, but I’m standing here talking about getting beat again.
“It’s a goalkeeping mistake and he has got to save it. End of, done. But at this point we’re really low in numbers. There’s three, four subs today and two of them are away for X-rays.
“Shinnie and Fitzwater are away for x-rays. We’ve not got our problems to seek, to be honest.
“But, you make your own luck in life, so you need to get on with it.”
St Mirren boss Jim Goodwin admitted his side weren't at their best, but insists artistic impression counted for nothing as St Mirren claimed the points with a gritty display to make it five games without defeat.
The Buddies boss revealed his pre-match pitch to his players was to win at all costs as a first half strike from Ethan Erhahon bagged the points.
Saints now sit level on points with Celtic in sixth spot and Goodwin admits the end justifies the means despite it being far from easy on the eye.
He said: “It’s very rare that you see an attractive and entertaining game of football here. Some of that is down to the pitch and the way that Livingston get stuck in. You need to give them credit for that but any side in the Premiership would come here and take a one-nil win all day long.
“We would obviously have loved to have played a bit more possession based football and try to 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 today 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.
“I believe we should have two or three extra points on the board for our efforts as we’ve had a couple of poor decisions which have gone against us but we have managed to put a few wins on the board.
“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 today. We stood up to everything Livingston had to throw at us and they will feel unlucky not to have taken a point."
