Livingston came from behind to knock the Diamonds out of this year's William Hill Scottish Cup.

It was third time unlucky for the Diamonds who lost the third of their home games in succession, having picked up six league points before being beaten by Livingston for the second time this season to exit the Cup at the first hurdle.

The margin of victory was much closer than the league meeting in August.

Livingston’s Mikey Miller fired a third minute free kick high over the goal but seven minutes later he left the field with an injury to be replaced by Nicky Cadden.

Scott Pittman attempted a speculative 35 yard shot that flew well wide of the goal as the visitors enjoyed some early possession.

Andy Ryan and Iain Russell combined to win a corner in 14 minutes that came to nothing but began a spell of Airdrie pressure.

A foul by Alan Lithgow in 17 minutes saw Ryan Conroy curl a 20-yard free kick over the wall but into Liam Kelly’s arms.

A minute later some fine combination play between Kieran MacDonald and Adam Brown saw the latter send the ball into the box for Ryan who hammered home via a deflection from Jackson Longridge.

Two minutes later Danny Mullen reacted quickly inside the penalty box collecting a through ball before clipping a 10 yard shot just wide of goal.

Jack Leitch fired a 25 yard shot wide of Kelly’s goal as he tried to increase the home side’s lead.

It was former Diamond Nicky Cadden, only on the field as that early substitute, who forced Rohan Ferguson into a low save on 25 minutes.

Five minutes later the winger went one better. Another former Airdrie player Liam Buchanan waited for Cadden to run beyond him inside the box then played a pass that gave the winger time and space to drill the ball in at the near post with the aid of a deflection.

Ferguson comfortably gathered Cadden’s 20-yard free kick in 33 minutes.

Joe Gorman went very close to giving Airdrie the lead in 42 minutes. A Conroy corner was headed out to the angle of the box and the big defender hammered a shot that thundered off the crossbar before being cleared.

Six minutes after the restart Livingston keeper Kelly miscued a passback and Russell reacted quickly but his netbound shot was superbly blocked by the keeper, making amends for his mistake.

With 55 minutes gone Daniel Boateng’s passback was well short, but Ferguson’s awareness saw him race out to blast the ball off Mullen and behind his goal.

On the hour mark Scott Pittman fired a 35-yard volley for goal and struck the angle of bar and post.

The visitors took the lead in 62 minutes after a front post cross by Sean Crighton picked out Danny Mullen whose low overhead kick gave Ferguson little chance to react as it landed in the net.

Conroy sent a 79th minute shot on Kelly’s goal that saw the keeper take the high effort cleanly.

There was no further scoring with the Diamonds five match unbeaten run coming to an end.