Livingston earned a hard-fought win 2-1 win over Aberdeen thanks to goals from Ayo Obileye and Alan Forrest.

Centre-back Obileye has become a goalscoring machine lately and he fired the Lions ahead after getting on the end of Bruce Anderson’s effort before Forrest’s lobbed effort doubled their advantage after a quickfire start to the second half.

But an improved display from the visitors aligned to Livingston becoming careless which saw Aberdeen grab one back through Christian Ramirez in the 66th minute.

The victory moves Livingston level with Aberdeen in the cinch Premiership.

It was an ideal start for the hosts as they stormed ahead inside eight minutes.

Anderson managed to fashion a half-chance from a corner after keeping the ball alive and his goalward effort found Obileye, who reversed the ball beyond the deputising Gary Woods with an intelligent flick.

Lewis Ferguson had a strong claim for a spot-kick when he appeared to be pulled down by Nicky Devlin after making a run across the front post but referee Kevin Clancy remained unmoved.

The home side looked to double their lead after 23 minutes when Christian Montano cut in from the left-hand side before arrowing a speculative effort straight at Woods.

The game burst into a brief bit of action after a slight lull as Forrest intercepted an under-hit Johnny Hayes pass and went agonisingly close to a second for Livingston as his shot from distance went narrowly over the bar.

Livingston started the second half on the front-foot and doubled their advantage after 49 minutes when Forrest beat the offside trap and latched onto the end of a Montano’s through ball before coolly dinking the ball over the outrushing Woods.

It was almost 3-0 minutes later as a well-worked move from the home side saw Jason Holt’s curling effort tipped onto a post by Woods at full stretch.

The Dons were given a lifeline after 66 minutes.

After the chance looked to have gone, the ball was hoisted into the box by Hayes and Ramirez showed some tremendous acrobatic skills to divert the ball beyond Max Stryjek and into the top corner.

Ramirez’s equaliser sparked some life in the visitors as they began to show some serious attacking impetus.

Ferguson spurned a gilt-edged chance to level the game as his header from point-blank range was brilliantly tipped over by Stryjek.

Livingston were reduced to 10 men after Montano allegedly shoved an Aberdeen player to the ground – but it was not much of a surprise as there were 12 yellow cards and a red.

Former Lions centre-forward Jay Emmanuel-Thomas came off the bench and almost made an instant impact as his powerful strike was blocked on the line by a sea of Livingston bodies before Stryjek recovered to punched it clear.