Ten man Livingston rescued their hopes of reaching the Premier Sports activities Cup knock-out phases as skipper Nicky Devlin fired house an 88th minute winner towards Cove Rangers.
The Lions went into the conflict realizing solely a victory would do following their midweek defeat to Inverness Caledonian Thistle however they received off to the worst doable begin as Esmael Goncalves noticed crimson for an off the ball incident halfway by way of the primary half.
Issues went from dangerous to worse simply earlier than the break when the Championship hosts took the lead within the first ever aggressive assembly between the 2 sides. Russian stopper Ivan Konovalov was helpless to forestall Iain Vigurs firing house from exterior the field.
However the guests have been capable of reply nearly immediately after the break as Andrew Shinnie and Ayo Obileye each have been in the best place on the proper time to scramble the ball over the road on the again put up with the previous seemingly getting the essential contact.
Cove, about to get pleasure from their first ever marketing campaign within the second tier, would create many of the remaining probabilities however have been unable to discover a breakthrough. Connor Scully and Mitch Megginson each had photographs saved by Konovalov whereas Robbie Leitch fired vast.
Having weathered the storm, Livingston ended the brighter of the edges with Obileye and Devlin each seeing efforts fly over the bar earlier than the skipper popped up two minutes from time. The suitable-back was teed up by Stephane Omeonga earlier than planting an exquisite left-footed effort throughout objective and in off the put up to seal a dramatic victory.
The Lions will nonetheless want Inverness to drop factors if they're to high the group however victory over Kelty Hearts subsequent Saturday in Livi's last group recreation would give them a combating probability of being one of many high three runners-up and progress to the last-16.
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