Livingston’s bid to beat the drop suffered a hammer blow when they were edged 2-0 at Kilmarnock in a key basement battle in the William Hill Premiership.
Victory over Hearts last weekend and the 2-0 success over the men from The Home of the Set Fare Arena moves the 11-th placed Rugby Park combine on to 27 points, 12 in front of bottom-markers Livingston.
St Mirren, who beat Falkirk 2-1 at Falkirk Stadium, are in tenth position also with 27 points and Marvin Bartley’s men suffered another blow when defender Kabongolo was sent off after a VAR review with six minutes left in the game.
It was former Manchester United forward Joe Hugill who fired the home side ahead after 25 minutes and Scotland call-up Findlay Curtis claimed the second after 77 minutes.
Bartley admitted post-game that the defeat hurt and the said: “In the final third we got into some good situations, but the final ball was not good enough. We just weren’t good enough in probably both boxes and ultimately the two goas we concede, especially the second one, we become lazy.”
Neil McCann, Killie’s manager, said: “It’s another clean sheet. We did brilliantly. We scored two fantastic goals and it is a very pleasing three points.”
