Marvin Bartley prays for help as Livingston cling on in survival fight

Livingston manager Marvin Bartley will pray for a favour after his team battled for a point against Aberdeen to cling on to their William Hill Premiership status for at least another day.

Joel Nouble and Robbie Muirhead netted equalisers in a 2-2 draw with the Dons which left Livi eight points adrift at the bottom with three games left.

They will be relegated if Kilmarnock beat Dundee United on Saturday and Bartley will spend the day watching Dundee take on St Mirren while hoping for a favour from Jim Goodwin’s side.

“We’ve lost two in the last nine and yet we’re a team cut away as far as we are,” he said.

“So that’s credit to the players because mentally it’s been tough for them.

“And again, you go behind against a really, really good Aberdeen team and they keep bouncing back.

“There’s nobody who was watching that game who could say that they didn’t give me everything. So I have to be proud of them.”

When asked about his Saturday plans, Bartley said: “I think I’m actually going to go and watch the Dundee game. We’ve got them next, so ultimately I have to prepare for that. That’s my job as the manager of this football club at this moment in time.

“I’ll probably be refreshing my phone every two seconds, and the battery will probably die in the 80th minute, so I won’t know the results until I get in the car. But I’ll have a little prayer as well.

“I couldn’t be prouder of the group, and now we need a favour.”

Aberdeen dominated the first half and Mitchel Frame put them ahead with his first senior goal, but Toyosi Olusanya missed a sitter and both Stuart Armstrong and Dennis Geiger also had good chances.

Dan Finlayson’s own goal put Aberdeen back in front but Muirhead soon levelled with a brilliant strike.

Robinson, whose team’s Premiership safety could be secured on Saturday, said: “I thought first half we were very good and should have been out of sight. Hence, Marvin made three changes, so you can tell he probably thought the same.

“We’ve three one-on-ones with the goalkeeper that we should score.

“We don’t, and you know Livingston are always going to come back, and they’ve got fight and spirit, they’ve caused problems for all the top teams in the league. And they do. The disappointing bit for me is the decisions leading to both goals can be better.

“But, collectively there’s improvement, there’s positives. We’re three unbeaten, and a point away at home in this environment is a decent point. But we’re disappointed we haven’t come out with three.”