Livi went on to claim a comprehensive victory, with a Lyndon Dykes header and Steven Lawless' late strike adding to the scoring.

Kilmarnock have won just one of their last seven games and they were abject in West Lothian.

"We knew what Livingston are like," explained Alessio. "They are a very physical team and they exploit the situations at corners and free-kicks and score a lot of goals from that.

"They have a lot of tall players and that can be an important factor. The first goal was like this.

"Then it was difficult for us to get back in to the game. After the second goal my team lacked consistency and played badly.

"Now we have to reflect on this defeat and I have to think of solutions. I don't want to see this sort of performance again."

By contrast, Livingston manager Gary Holt was able to toast a first victory in nine matches.

And he believes the Lions have finally racked up a result which their recent performances have merited.

Holt was quick to point out the difficulty of some of Livi's fixtures during that winless streak – Rangers, Celtic, Motherwell and Hibernian among them – and still reckons his side should have registered more points form those outings.

However, he believes justice was done at the weekend.

Holt said: "We've had a spell playing against some of the top sides in the league – Rangers twice, Celtic twice, Motherwell, Kilmarnock, Aberdeen – and I believe we've deserved more points from those matches.

"We were in all of those games, bar Rangers at home [2-0] and Celtic away [4-0].

"So we've had performances of late that have been really good – and on Saturday we got what we deserved. The work-rate from the off was brilliant after I asked them: 'Can you give me an extra 10 per cent?'"