Livingston manager David Martindale was delighted to see Stephen Kelly’s hard work on the training ground pay off as the midfielder scored a stunning free-kick in the 2-0 victory over St Johnstone.
The former Rangers trainee added to Joel Nouble’s strike by curling a glorious effort in off a post.
Having been aware of the 23-year-old’s dead-ball expertise, Martindale admitted he had been waiting for Kelly to deliver for Livingston.
Martindale said: “Stephen works on that. Any younger kids listening to this, that is not something that happens naturally.
“Stephen puts a lot of hours into that on a weekly basis.
“He puts time and effort into honing that skill. I think in his last game for Scotland Under-21s he scored a similar goal.
“When he came in here, I’ve been saying, ‘When are we going to see this Stephen?’.
“The keeper has no chance.”
Livingston go into next weekend’s final cinch Premiership pre-split fixtures with a chance of making the top six.
However, they will need to overcome Dundee United and hope that either Hibernian or St Mirren lose.
Livingston are playing catch up following successive 3-0 defeats prior to overcoming Saints, but Martindale says they will do all they can to finish the campaign on a high.
He added: “It’s difficult up there, but we lost a bit of focus going for the top six.
“We can only control our own situation and that’s how we’ll look at it going to Tannadice.
“There’s nothing that says we’ve a divine right to pick up three points there.”
Saints have now lost three games in a row and are now only five points clear of bottom side Ross County.
Manager Callum Davidson admitted his side were being punished for simple mistakes.
He said: “For me, basic mistakes have cost us in those matches, but do they want to just sit and accept that or do they roll their sleeves up?
“You just clear your lines. It’s a tricky pitch, but we’d spoken to the players about that and, yes, it frustrates me.
“We switched to a back four to simplify things, with one centre-back tight on the striker and the other dropping off, but at the first goal no-one goes tight and he’s allowed to turn and play the ball forward.
“You can’t lose goals like that when it’s always going to be a game of very few chances.”
