Delighted David Martindale piled praise on his Livi stars for playing their cards right - after referee Gavin Duncan forgot his.
Ayo Obileye’s 66th minute penalty ensured a second win in four days for the Lions who jump into eighth.
United were furious at the award of the spot kick. But Martindale was in no doubt that ref Duncan - who had the embarrassment of realising he had left his cards inside when he tried to book Declan Glass in the first half - was spot on.
And he joked he hopes SFA disciplinary beaks have forgotten their cards when he appears in front of a disciplinary tribunal at Hampden on Thursday to face a misconduct charge from the last time these sides met in October.
He said: "No comment about the ref forgetting his cards. I'm up at Hampden on Thursday. I hope they've lost their cards on Thursday!
"The penalty's a penalty, 100 per cent.
"I thought Andrew Shinnie was clever and Scott Pittman did well too, so I think it's a penalty. Maybe a bit soft, but you can't go flying in the box and make body contact like that and not win the ball.
"In fact, we scored a goal after it that they called offside and the boys were debating it. Apparently, it was onside, but I've not watched it back.
"I thought we defended with our lives. We were brilliant”.
Livi are now five points off bottom spot and looking upwards after a run of six games without a win saw them sitting second bottom only a week ago.
But Martindale said: "I'll take every game in isolation and see where it gets us. That's us got three home games and one away coming up.
“So we've put ourselves in a good position coming into the winter break if we keep picking up points.
“We always fancy ourselves at home.
"I can see it was coming together as a manager because the performances weren't that bad.”
