Josh Mullin impresses Gary Holt on return to Livingston

Posted Wednesday, October 07, 2020 by PA

Gary Holt has tipped Josh Mullin to make a seamless reintegration back into the Livingston line-up after watching the winger bag a brace on his second Lions debut.

The homesick 27-year-old is back at the Tony Macaroni Arena following a two-year spell at Ross County after coming to an agreement to rip up his Dingwall deal.

Mullin – who won back-to-back promotions under former Livi boss David Hopkin – showed he is ready to fit back in after netting twice and grabbing an assist in the 5-1 Betfred Cup win against Edinburgh City.

Scott Robinson got the scoring started at Ainslie Park before Matej Poplatnik and Lars Lokotsch rounded off a comfortable win either side of a Danny Handling penalty for City.

And boss Holt said: “The good thing is that Josh knows us. He knows how we work. We have evolved since he left but he will give us another dimension with his deliveries and he can score goals.

“There’s nothing better than to score two on your second debut.

“It helps that there won’t be a bedding-in process as he knows most of the staff.

“I’m probably the only one he doesn’t really know but it won’t be an eye-opener for him as he’s seen how we operate day-to-day.

“It’s a great opportunity for him as he wants to play games but he hasn’t done himself any harm tonight.

“I asked the team to be professional because I’ve played in these games and ended up being the headlines the next day as we hadn’t turned up.

“But from the first whistle I thought we were right at it and gave Edinburgh the respect they deserved.

“We asked them to be ruthless with the opportunities we got and at times we were excellent in that department.”

League Two Edinburgh were playing their first competitive fixture since April but manager James McDonaugh said: “It would have been hard enough if they’d been off for six months and we’d been training that whole time, never mind the other way about.

“Livi are 10 games into their league season and it’s a massive difference when you play these top-flight teams. You need them to have an off day and us to be brilliant but obviously it was the other way round.”