Livingston defender Jon Guthrie knows momentum is massive in football and insists David Martindale’s squad have a belief they can win whenever they cross the white line after five straight victories.

The West Lothian side produced an impressive display in a 2-0 Scottish Premiership win over Hamilton on Wednesday to move one point outside of the top six.

Livingston passed up a series of opportunities in the first half but their pressure finally told when Guthrie headed in the opener seven minutes after the interval to notch his fourth goal of the campaign.

Josh Mullin added their second in stoppage time when he curled home a free-kick to ensure the scoreline was more reflective of their dominance in the game.

Livingston face Kilmarnock at Rugby Park on Boxing Day and Guthrie is determined to make it six wins on the spin.

Guthrie said: “In football momentum is a big thing, everyone is going into games so positive and that comes from what we’re doing on the training ground.

“We’ve stuck to our principles, working hard and it seems to be showing on the pitch now.

“You get the feeling that when we step onto the pitch that ‘yes, we’re going to win this’ and our performance against Hamilton was one of our best of the season. The way we moved the ball about, the chances we created and we didn’t really give away any chances.

“So, we were delighted with the performance.

“To be honest, it could have been even more. It was a really convincing win from us. We dominated pretty much from the start and were disappointed to come in at half-time 0-0, especially as we had some chances and I should have scored myself.

“But we said just to keep doing what we were doing and the goals would come. Luckily, they did.

“We didn’t play great against Killie at home, we let ourselves down that day, so we’ll be looking to put that right on Boxing Day now.”

Martindale has yet to experience defeat as Livingston manager. He guided them to four wins after being placed in interim charge following Gary Holt’s departure and then made it five in a row after being handed the job until the end of the season.

Guthrie added: “Obviously, it has been a brilliant start for him. We all know what we’re doing out there, he knows exactly what he wants from each individual and there’s no-one that doesn’t know their job.

“He is very vocal and talks to us a lot. We do a lot of work on the training ground and it’s paying off at this moment.”