Martini left shaken and stirred as Lions are thrown to the Saints

IT was hardly the start the new Roman Legions at Livingston had wished for as coach Roberto Landi engaged in a touchline tiff with St Johnstone boss Derek McInnes and betrayed his emotions to such an extent he had his new-look team scared to express themselves.

Landi lost his cool as the Lions were comfortably beaten, engaging in too much touchline banter and refusing to shake McInnes' hand after claiming to have been subjected to some acute Anglo Saxon.

Landi said the Saints coaching team had subjected him to unparalleled abuse during the match, comments McInnes later branded as a lie. Of more concern to Landi should have been his team's fragility, particularly 19-year-old goalkeeper Pierre-Antoine Martini, who suffered a nerve-wracking 90 minutes.

Landi paraded five debutants at McDiarmid Park, but was soon out of the dugout, his trademark baseball cap slung low across his eyes, as Saints wasted no time in pushing the Lions back with Collin Samuel, Liam Craig and Peter MacDonald all prominent.

Waving and cajoling his players on, he resembled a caged lion, not quite sure what he was angry about, but determined to bare his teeth. Frankly, he looked anxious, and rightly so, as MacDonald claimed a penalty after five minutes when his volley from outside the box appeared to rebound off a Livingston player, however referee Iain Brines did not agree.

Just a minute later Murray Davidson almost made it 1-0 to Livingston when he neatly collected a pass and drove into the box, but his shot was parried by home goalkeeper Euan McLean.

Martini saved right-handed from Martin Hardie after he was given far too much room on the 18-yard box and angled his shot for the near corner.

Landi was becoming more and more animated and was left smacking his baseball cap with his left hand when Anthony McParland directed a direct free-kick, 22 yards from goal, high over the bar. But Leigh Griffiths then forced McLean into a fine save after carving out a great solo chance from wide left.

Of most concern to Landi, however, was maybe not the squandered chances but the erratic performance of the inexperienced Martini, who looked far from able to cope with any decent cross coming into his box. Samuel, looking not quite match fit, could have capitalised on the keeper's fragility and scored into an empty net, had he anticipated Martini's nerves as he once again flapped and missed another cross.

But the Frenchman redeemed himself a minute later with a fine diving save to prevent MacDonald breaking the deadlock.

Griffiths created the best chance of the half when he fired in a crisp left-foot shot from out wide which McLean did well to make a parry, that just eluded the on-rushing Davidson.

Landi was playing every ball and, by this time, dancing around the coaching area like a barefoot fire dancer and soon appeared to be having words with McInnes.

He looked frustrated and clearly wanted his team to create more width and utilise McParland, who was finding it difficult to get into the game.

However his constant instructions appeared to inhibit his already nervous charges, who were by this time finding it difficult to retain any sort of possession.

The anxiety was most acute in Martini, who was so visibly nervous and so scared of making a mistake, he was rendered immobile by fear. Not only did the keeper have to suffer the indignity of seeing his coach throw his hands up in the air after failing to carry out another shouted instruction, he also endured a non-stop ear-bending from some of his more experienced colleagues.

However, he went into the dressing room at half time the proud holder of a clean sheet, which was no mean feet after Livingston had conceded ten goals in two visits to Perth last term.

Saints replaced Samuel with Gavin Swankie after the interval and Hardie was soon back to his best, dictating midfield play and stinging the hands of Martini with a fierce 20-yard shot.

Then, after 54 minutes, Martini's version of "How to Keep Goal by the Keystone Cops" was unveiled as Chris Innes, with his back to goal, defended an incoming ball by heading it back to Martini, without looking. Martini, under no threat and for reasons best known to himself, had already rushed out to try and beat Innes to the ball, and faced a mad scramble back to goal as he just managed to stop it rolling home. Innes turned to Landi to demand the replacement of Martini, but the coach wasn't looking – he was facing the dugout, crouched down with head in hands.

A minute later and Saints were ahead as MacDonald was quickest to a breaking ball six yards out.

Griffiths was Livingston's main threat and he was cynically brought down by Craig on the outside of the box four minutes later as he raced in on McLean. Craig was given a straight red card, but after playing for more than 30 minutes with an extra man Livingston created only two more shots on goal and Saints sealed victory when Jason Talbot brought down Chris Millar and Paul Sheerin sent Martini the wrong way from the penalty spot.