Richard the flying start

RICHARD GOUGH has talked the talk for long enough. Yesterday he started to walk the walk. At 2.55pm, he sent out his first line-up as a manager in senior football, paused just long enough to sign an autograph for a waiting fan, then spent a nervous 90 minutes being reminded of the boundaries of his technical area by the fourth official as his team clung on to an early lead by James McPake.

It was enough to give them victory over their relegation rivals Dundee and lift them to the relative safety of ninth in the SPL table, but typically Gough could not leave without also making some postmatch points. The most notable was on the topic of Stuart Lovell.

The Almondvale club captain had made it on to the subs' bench despite some newsprint criticism of Lionheart consortium, ahead of a disciplinary meeting with club officials tomorrow. After 86 minutes he even made it on to the pitch, when he replaced youngster Steven Adam to a chorus of approval from the home crowd.

Afterwards, it was possible to interpret a veiled criticism of Pearse Flynn in Gough's insistance that he hoped he would have the final say about whether or not Lovell - blamed by some club officials for the removal of Allan Preston - would remain at the club.

"It was not a signal, " Gough said. "He is part of my squad.

He is available. Hopefully that gets sorted out quite quickly.

From what I can see he has been hung out a little bit to dry. He has taken two wage cuts to stay here. They have to get through the disciplinary procedure but I hope the final decision will rest with me because he is my player."

His side's late bout of nervousness was enough for Gough to talk of making "140 clearing headers" and on the final whistle turn to his assistant Archie Knox and ask how he and Walter Smith had "managed to do this for so long, holding on to 1-0 leads", but in truth his team just about deserved their victory for their first half display.

Little sympathy was forthcoming from his opposite number Jim Duffy, freshly demoralised after the highs of last week's draw against Celtic.

"I congratulate Richard on his first game and say I hope to see him and his red hair getting greyer every day, " Duffy said.

None other than Ally McCoist was at Almondvale to witness McPake's goal, but Duffy didn't spare his defenders Brent Sancho and Bobby Mann for their part in it. "It was a goal that I thought honestly was as bad a goal as you can lose at this level" he said.

An even opening period was marred by Ian Anderson leaving the field as early as the seventh minute with a knee problem, but still saw Dundee contrive to carve out the clearer openings. Roddy McKenzie was forced to palm away a Bobby Mann header as early as the second minute, before John Sutton put the Lovell that did make it on from the start, Steve, clear on goal only for the Englishman to trip over his shoelaces.

Next, Sutton mistimed his header after some neat wing play from Steven Robb.

One minute later, the home side's own strikers worked in tandem to make them suffer for it. Jason Dair, playing at right back in the absence of the injured David McNamee, hit a long ball towards Hamilton, who soared above Sancho to propel a head flick in the direction of McPake. The 20year-old graduate of the youth team, who had kept his place after Alec Cleland introduced him for his first senior start against Kilmarnock last week, turned Mann, shrugged off his hamfisted attempts to tug his jersey, and left the big centre half in his wake as he cruised towards the penalty box. He had time to look up and pick his spot before rolling the ball past the onrushing Derek Soutar for his first senior goal. It completed the player's rehabilitation from a broken leg sustained in a BP Cup youth match against Celtic which failed to heal correctly, where he was helped back to fitness by Alan Main.

"Ihad a lot of time to think about it but those are the ones I am usually bad at, " he said.

Dundee were fortunate to make it in at half time only one goal in arrears. Again McPake outstripped Mann and Sancho out wide and would have returned the compliment with an assist had Hamilton not blazed the ball wildly over the bar from eight yards. The former Dundee and Dundee United striker spurned a second opportunity before half-time when his header from Craig Easton's cross was beaten out by the diving Soutar.

There were no changes as the second half began, apart from just a hint of a one in Livingston's attitude. With perhaps too many people trying to show off to their new manager, the home side could easily have conceded an equaliser. Robb danced away down the left and fed Lovell, who speared a fine ball across goal for Sutton, whose tame sidefoot effort was hacked away by McKenzie.

From the resultant corner, Rubio had to clear his lines after a melee in the Livingston area. But, even with Fabian Caballero and Alex Cerdeira thrown on, all the visitors had left was an angled shot from Steven Robb and a late penalty shout for Goran Stanic's foul on substitute Steven McNally. Gough, on the other hand, had plenty to shout about.

FAST FOOTBALL Fair result? Just about. The home side played most of the football on show. Dundee never really showed enough to deserve taking anything.

Entertainment value: For a relegation dogfight, the first half contained some decent football.Things reverted to type in the second period.

Talking point: Roughly an extra 1,500 turned up at Almondvale - although 1000 tickets were given away free - to see how Livingston's new management team of Richard Gough and Archie Knox fared.

Man of the match:

Jim Hamilton.

Culpable with a couple of missed chances which could have made the game safe prior to half time, but overall no-one on the pitch gave more to the Livingston cause. Set up the winning goal, made passes when he could and even tracked back to make some heroic goalline clearances.

Richard Gough: "I just thanked the lads for getting me off to a good start. Before the game I had asked them to give me what they had done last week. The three youngsters did everything that was asked of them."

Jim Duffy: "It has been a frustrating season, not just this afternoon. We keep trying to get two performances back to back. But we even had two performances in one game.

We can't lose goals like that and expect the opposition just to do the same as well."

(1-0) McKenzie Dair Harding Rubio Stanic Lilley O'Brien Easton Adam McPake Hamilton Soutar McDonald Sancho Mann Hernandez Anderson Fotheringham Smith Robb Lovell Sutton Subs: Brittain for McPake 72, Snowdon for Easton 79, Lovell for Adam 86.

Not used: Meldrum, Libbra, Snodgrass, McMenamin.

Booked: Lilley 85.

Referee: I Fyfe.

Subs: McNally for Anderson 7, Caballero for Sutton 74, Cerdeira for McDonald 80.

Not used: Murray, Brady, Larsen, Barrett.

Attendance: 4,509.