Poor start sees battling Stenny beaten 4-0 by Livigston

A poor opening half hour from Stenhousemuir lead to a 4-0 win for Livingston at Ochilview in Tuesday night’s Betfred Cup group match.
Stenhousemuir manager Davie IronsStenhousemuir manager Davie Irons
Stenhousemuir manager Davie Irons

However the scoreline did not reflect the overall game with the Warriors competing well from that point on and matching up to their Premiership opponents.

Livingston went ahead after 60 seconds through Alan Forrest who got on the end of a flick on down the left channel and side footed it past Paddy Martin and low into the far corner.

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Forrest then got his and Livi's second from a similar scenario, finding space down the left after Jay Emmanuel-Thomas had drawn the home defence in and curling another effort around Martin and into that same far corner.

The next ten minutes saw Emmanuel-Thomas with a couple of efforts from distance, one straight down the throat of Martin and another well over the crossbar as the visitors kept Stenny pinned back inside their own half.

It was 3-0 just before the 30 minute mark when Matej Poplatnik found himself one on one with Martin with the Stenny back line five yards back appealing for offside as the Slovenian cooly slid it past the Stenny keeper from 15 yards.

Stenny had their first real sniff of goal on 35 minutes when Ryan Blair's corner picked out the late run of Andy Munro at the back post but the header was never troubling Gary Maley in the Livi goal who comfortably held it.

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Stenny began to grow into the game in the next ten minutes and began playing some neat football including a good passing move which eventually saw Blair test Maley with a shot from 25 yards but it was straightforward enough for the veteran stopper in the last action of the half.

The Warriors lived up to their nickname int he second half, were battling and looking for something to give them some kind of hope but the knockout blow came on 73 minutes when substitute Taylor-Sinclair found himself unmarked at the back post from a Mullan corner and had an easy header for 4-0.

Again though Stenny's heads didn't go down and they were denied a goal on 78 minutes that their effort probably deserved when Tommy Muir brilliantly turned Efe Ambrose on the edge of the box to get a shot away from 10 yards but Maley came flying off his line and made himself big to block the shot early.

Still they kept at it and their effort levels probably deserved the reward of a consolation goal but it never came and Livi saw the game out from that point.

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