Two former Diamonds came back to haunt Airdrie as Livingston left New Broomfield with three points.

The Diamonds dropped to third while title hopefuls Livi increased their lead at the top to move closer to the automatic promotion place.

First met second in the table with Airdrie starting without recent loan signing Jordan MacGregor.

Livingston started brighter as defender Declan Gallagher headed the ball over the goal after four minutes from Mark Milllar’s free kick.

Airdrie’s Jack McKay’s flick for goal in 17 minutes from Ryan Conroy’s free kick was taken cleanly by Liam Kelly in the Livingston goal.

Andy Ryan also tested the keeper three minutes later after a decent passage of play resulted in the Diamonds top striker firing for goal from the edge of the box.

Livingston opened the scoring on 34 minutes after a long ball forward was headed clear by Kieran MacDonald and former Diamond Sean Crighton caught the ball sweetly to send a 25-yard volley into the corner of the net.

Four minutes into the second half a mishit effort by Millar effort saw defender Joe Gorman deflect the ball into the corner of the net to leave Airdrie up against it.

Airdrie worked hard and eventually had the ball in the net 56 minutes after Iain Russell fired a loose ball high beyond Liam Kelly only to be denied by the linesman's late offside flag.

Millar’s 73 minute shot from the edge of the box was well taken in the centre of his goal by Rohan Ferguson.

As Airdrie pushed forward in 77 minutes a terrific crossfield ball from substitute Nikolay Todorov found Danny Mullen, who skipped past MacDonald then curled the ball low beyond Ferguson at his right hand post.

Four minutes later Todorov beat Macdonald on the right then his front post delivery was met by Nicky Cadden who headed the ball past Ferguson.

In stoppage time Ryan Conroy picked up a red card after reacting to a push.