Gary Holt believes Livingston’s disappointing display against St Johnstone will “light a fire” in his Lions as they attempt to bounce back against Hamilton.

The West Lothian outfit were uncharacteristically out of sorts on Wednesday night as they slipped to a first Ladbrokes Premiership defeat at home this season, with Matty Kennedy netting the only goal.

Holt fully expects his players to respond positively to a rare set-back in an otherwise-impressive campaign to date, with Livi belying pre-season predictions of a relegation battle to sit safely in the top-six.

He said: “It’s good for the players to suffer a defeat. To get that horrible taste so they think ‘I don’t like this and I don’t want it too often’.

“Hopefully that lights the fire and they take it into Saturday.

“You are going to lose games of football. We don’t want to, and certainly didn’t go out to lose on Wednesday, but it will happen and we need to give St Johnstone credit – they were good, experienced and have a lot of know how.

“But we knew there would come a point when we would have a setback and the great thing about football is that there’s always another game, and we’ve got one really quickly.

“Since I’ve come in, we’ve bounced back from any little bit of adversity.”

Holt, meanwhile, reckons Accies are a template for his side as Livingston seek to establish themselves in the top flight.

He added: “Hamilton are a great example to us. How they play, the recruitment and how they don’t get too down after a run of games when they are not winning every week.

“That’s the mentality side of things and something we need to consider. They have done it and you can’t dismiss their success.”