Match Report - By John Hoey

Livingston 3 Brechin City 0

Brechin City went down to their third successive league defeat after league leaders Livingston won comfortably by 3-0 at the Tony Macaroni Arena.

City went behind with barely a minute on the clock when they failed to defend a set-piece and Liam Buchanan took full advantage to blast home the opener and another set-piece just before the half-hour brought Livi's second goal when Craig Halkett headed home a Nicky Cadden free-kick.

The hosts wrapped up victory early in the second-half when a close-range Nicky Cadden shot took a slight deflection before squirming past Graeme Smith and although. It's tried to hit back, Livi ran out very comfortable and deserved winners.

Chris O'Neil and Andy Jackson made welcome returns to manager Darren Dods's opening line-up with Darren McCormack and James Dale who had also been out of action for lengthy periods both finding places on the bench.

City got the match off to the worst possible start and found themselves a goal down within the first 50 seconds. The visiting defence failed to deal properly with a long throw-in from Shaun Byrne and the ball fell kindly for Buchanan who blasted it past Smith from around two yards out.

Livi pushed forward again straight from the kick-off with Dougie Hill having to concede a corner under pressure from Buchanan and a couple of minutes later it was Paul McLean's turn to put the ball out for a corner after Nicky Cadden had sent a dangerous cross into the box.

City though gradually began to come more into the match and in the O'Neil did really well to make ground wide on the left before delivering a good cross into the Livi box for Finn Graham but the midfielder with his back to the goal couldn't connect under pressure from the home defence.

Great play from Liam Watt a couple of minutes later provided an opening for Jackson but the striker steered his shot wide of the target.

Another good run from O'Neil in the 19th minute saw him outpace home defender Sean Crighton before sending another good cross deep into the Livi box but unfortunately for City, there were no takers.

Jackson had another half-chance three minutes later when the ball broke kindly for him just within the home penalty-box but he fired his shot wide of Liam Kelly's left-hand post.

However, just as City were beginning to settle into the match they lost another goal after 29 minutes. The hosts won a free-kick to the left side of the City box and Cadden delivered a pin-point kick into the heart of the City box for Craig Halkett who rose above the City defence to power a header past Smith.

As the half drew to a close it was Livi who came close to increasing their advantage when a Scott Pittman close-range drive was blocked by Smith with four minutes remaining and a minute afterwards Pittman fired a shot well over the bar.

Livi kept up the pressure at the beginning of the second-half and they put the game beyond doubt nine minutes into the half when a close-range Cadden shot took a deflection off McLean before squirming past Smith.

The hosts continued to dominate the reminder of the half without creating anything clear-cut in front of goal and although City defended manfully and tried to move forward the league leaders were quite happy to move the ball around and show why they are now eleven points clear at the top of the Ladbrokes League One table.