livingston go down fighting published: thursday 3 october 2002, 23.16cet livingston fc 4-3 sk sturm graz(agg: 6-8) thrilling fightback from scots not enough.
livingston fc's battling display at home to sk sturm graz was not enough to overcome the austrian side who progressed to the second round as 8-6 winners on aggregate.
goal feast livingston went into the game trailing 5-2 from the first leg and the return was another goal feast, finishing 4-3 to the scottish premier league side. barry wilson struck twice and davide xausa and marvin andrews also netted for livingston after the visitors had led 3-1 through a double from imre szabics and a david mujiri goal.
penalty opener livingston, playing their first european home tie, were handed a penalty on the half-hour mark when wilson was felled in the box by gunther neukirchner. the same player then stepped up to convert from the spot but graz pulled level just before the break when szabics headed into the net from close range.
graz take the lead the visitors took the lead within two minutes of the restart when mujiri finished from the edge of the area and the game looked over on 53 minutes when szabics scored his second of the evening. it only took a minute for livingston to get back into the game, however, when david mcnamee's cross was met by xausa whose volley flew into the net.
livingston hit back livingston's persistence earned them another goal after 78 minutes when david bingham played the ball into the path of andrews, who produced a looping header from ten metres to send the ball over the line.
late rally bingham then had a goal disallowed for offside and thundered the underside of the crossbar in injury time although the referee waved play on. but seconds later wilson crashed in a drive from 30 metres although it was too little too late.
