Scottish Football. Livingstone win Cup against Alloa

Livingston lifted the Petrofac Training Cup after a convincing win over Alloa Athletic to add some cheer to a season fraught with on and off-field torment.

BBC Sport reported that It was the first time in the 24 seasons of the Challenge Cup for teams outside Scotland's top flight that the West Lothian club had tasted success.

The side sitting bottom of the Scottish Championship took the lead through a clinical Scott Pittman finish.

Callum Fordyce and Jordan White, twice, added further goals after the break.

It was a victory that will have been particularly poignant for Darren Cole, the Livingston defender who insisted on playing despite the game coming only a week after the death of his serving soldier cousin, Shaun, in a Miami street.

Livi will also take heart from the victory as they seek to narrow a relegation-zone gap with second-bottom Alloa that would be standing at only a point had they not been given a five-point penalty for financial irregularities.

Alloa will hope that, in the final league games, they will be able to make better use than they did in Perth of Michael Chopra and the close control that allowed the veteran striker to once grace the Champions League with Newcastle United.

Both sides emerged from the McDiarmid Park tunnel knowing that the trophy would go to the side who best lifted the weight of poor form from their collective shoulders.

LK