Livingston will host Motherwell at the Tony Macaroni stadium on Saturday in the Scottish Premiership, with the home side looking to avoid three league defeats on the spin after successive losses to Kilmarnock and Rangers.
Steve Robinson, meanwhile, will be hoping that his Motherwell squad can replicate last weekend's performance which saw the Steelmen cruise to a 4-0 victory over Ross County.
Match preview
© Reuters
Motherwell have struggled to find consistency of late with the Steelmen both winning and losing matches by big margins.
An impressive 4-0 victory over Ross County followed a 5-1 thumping by Rangers, but prior to those two results, the Steelmen had beaten Aberdeen 3-0 away from home before losing by the same score to Israeli side Hapoel Be'er Sheva in the Europa League.
One blow for manager Steve Robinson this week was the announcement that goalkeeper Trevor Carson has been ruled out for at least three months after suffering a knee injury in their victory over Ross County last weekend.
Carson had kept four clean sheets in all competitions this campaign but the Steelmen will now have to rely on Aaron Chapman in between the sticks.
A win for Motherwell this weekend could see them move into the top six of the Scottish Premiership.
© Reuters
Despite accumulating four wins on the bounce in all competitions, Livingston have since suffered back-to-back defeats, losing 3-1 at home to Kilmarnock and 2-0 away to Rangers.
Their match at Ibrox was their first league game in seven without scoring and manager Gary Holt will be hoping his side can get back to winning ways after slipping down to ninth in the league table.
After losing striker Lyndon Dykes to Queens Park Rangers this summer, the Lions have had to rely on goals from elsewhere, although forward Scott Tiffoney has only managed one goal – in Livingston's 2-0 win against St Johnstone – so far this campaign.
Livingston have only won one of their last five meetings with the Steelmen but a win for the Lions could see them move above their opponents and into the top half of the table.
Livingston Scottish Premiership form: LLWWLL
Livingston form (all competitions): WWWWLL
Motherwell Scottish Premiership form: LLWWLW
Motherwell form (all competitions): WWWLLW
Team News
© Reuters
Gary Holt is likely to revert to a back-four, with central defender Ciaron Brown set to drop to the Livingston bench.
Goalkeeper Robby McCrorie will return to the side after he was unable to play against his parent club Rangers last weekend.
New recruit Jay Emmanuel-Thomas could be given his second start up front after making his full debut in the 2-0 defeat at Ibrox.
The long-term injury to Motherwell goalkeeper Trevor Carson will see Aaron Chapman given his first league start of the campaign.
Defender Bevis Mugabi will be unavailable for selection after suffering a shoulder injury.
Attacking trio Devante Cole, Tony Watt and Chris Long are likely to keep their places in Robinson's starting XI.
Livingston possible starting lineup:
McCrorie; Devlin, Ambrose, Guthrie, Serrano; Bartley, Holt; Robinson, Pittman, Forrest; Emmanuel-Thomas
Motherwell possible starting lineup:
Chapman; O'Donnell, Gallagher, Lamie, McGinley; Campbell, O'Hara, Polworth; Cole, Watt, Long
We say: Livingston 2-2 Motherwell
Motherwell's inconsistent form has seen the Steelmen scoring and conceding plenty of goals, while Livingston have failed to score in only one of their last 10 matches in all competitions. Both sides should create several opportunities in the final third but that may not be enough to take all three points.
Top betting tip
Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting a home win in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.Home Win:dataData Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Livingston win with a probability of 40.64%. A win for Motherwell had a probability of 31.19% and a draw had a probability of 28.2%.
The most likely scoreline for a Livingston win was 1-0 with a probability of 12.45%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.22%) and 2-0 (7.77%). The likeliest Motherwell win was 0-1 (10.53%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (13.15%). The actual scoreline of 0-2 was predicted with a 5.6% likelihood.
