Livingston's winless run reaches a dozen games in dismal defeat to Motherwell

Livingston's hopes of avoiding relegation from the Premiership were struck a severe blow - and largely by their own doing - as they went down 3-1 at Motherwell.

Fir Park hosted the top flight's bottom two sides with both looking for their first win in several months and it was Motherwell who picked up the points as they pounced on calamitous mistakes from the visitors. The defeat leaves the Lions six points adrift and winless in a dozen games.

Livingston almost got off to the worst possible start as Brodie Spencer's effort in a congested penalty box took a deflection off Michael Nottingham and went narrowly wide.

The Well had the better of the early stages with a fine save from Shamal George denying Mika Biereth as he looked to turn home Georgie Gent's cross from the left flank.

They didn't have to wait too long, though, before finding the net and they were given more than a helping hand from Livingston. After being booed off the park midweek, Joel Nouble's week got even worse when he was caught in possession outside his own penalty box with the ball eventually finding its way to Blair Spittal to roll home.

And things went from bad to worse five minutes later as Theo Bair latched onto David Zdravkovski's pass and got in behind the defence before duly slamming the ball past George to double the lead.

In desperate need of a way back into the game, Scott Pittman immediately provided a spark as Cristian Montano's dinked ball into the box found the club's record appearance holder and he made no mistake with a fine finish into the top corner for his first league goal since April 2022.

Having dragged themselves back into the contest, the Lions shot themselves in the foot once again as skipper Mick Devlin's slack pass was