Solid performance overall. Livi started both the first and second halves strongly and Nouble had Harper on toast on numerous occasions. Moyo on the other flank also looked lively but Carson was more alert to him and even when he was beaten the final ball was often dreadful.
Holt had an outrageous long range effort from about 40 yards that looked like it was going to sail in over the head of Rdigers but somehow he scrambled back and tipped the ball onto the bar before gathering it up. Deas (I think) had a good header off the bar from a Harper free kick before we took the lead. Carson snuffed out a Livi attack on the bye line and after a couple of quick passes, Scott Allardice sent a glorious pass out to the left flank to the feet of MacKay who got the ball under control before breezing past the Livi full back and he sent a low cross to the back post for Samuels to tuck away from a few yards out. Only other major talking point of the first half was a pretty reckless challenge from Fitzwater on Allardice. It looked really bad at the time and probably should have seen the Livi defender sent off.
Again, Livi dominated the start of the half before we got settled down again. The drama kicked off when a long clearance downfield by Ridgers got Samuels in behind the Livi defence and Stryjek came rushing out and leathered him in the face Street Fighter style. Out came the red card and Livi were down to 10. From the free kick harper drew a good save from the replacement keeper before a piece of MacKay magic saw us extend the lead. A raking pass sent Mackay away and he ghosted past Devlin using some kind of elastico type skill that had us on our feet. He drove into the box and stabbed an effort towards goal which looked like it may have gone in possibly with a touch off a Livi defender. It was a stunning piece of skill that I hope we get to see back again.
After this we were pretty comfortable and Dodds started top change things a lot to give more players minutes but this led to us becoming a little disjointed as players were frequently moved around the pitch into different positions. Livi started to come back into things and got a deserved goal back when Holt rolled his man at the edge of the box and dispatched a low drive past Ridgers. Then Oakley gave away a penalty with needless pull of a shirt but Holt sent the resultant spot kick well over the bar and we saw the rest of the game out.
A deserved win but we almost gave it away at the end. Delaney, Deas and MacKay were all very good and look ready to go already. Others still need a bit more game time to get fully up to speed.