Livingston's Under 19 side bowed out of this season's SFA Youth Cup at the semi final stage after losing 3-0 at Celtic Park this afternoon.

The young Lions beat Motherwell, Coldstream and Aberdeen en route to the last four for the second season in succession, but came unstuck against a cosmopolitan Celtic side.

Set up initially to contain their opponents, the young Lions held their SPL opponents until midway through the second half, when Hungarian midfielder Filip Twardzik scored the opening goal.

By that stage they had been reduced to ten men when Michael Travis was controversially ordered off for what the referee deemed to be 'denying a clear goalscoring opportunity'.

Two goals from James Keating later sealed the win for Celtic who now face bitter rivals Rangers at Hampden in the final on April 27.

Livi had a couple of half chances, the best of which felt to Ross Gray in the first half when Celtic keeper Nicholas Feely miscued a clearance.

Despite a full bloodied and wholehearted performance they were unable to penetrate the Celtic defence.

"Celtic are a good side, but we were disappointed about the red card decision and felt that it changed the game," said coach Brian Welsh afterwards.

"Our gameplan was to frustrate Celtic and we were managing to do that when 'Trav' was sent off.

"It became a lot harder with ten men and we'll never know what might have happened had we played the second half with a full team.

"We're all disappointed but the boys deserve massive credit for getting this far and putting out two decent SPL teams on the way."

Best on the day for Livingston were skipper Calum Fordyce, keeper Andrew Murphy and midfielder Stefan Scougall.

Pics © Robert Speirs