MOTHERWELL manager Stephen Robinson reckons Adam Livingstone received a “rude awakening” to the fitness levels he must achieve to cut it in the Ladbrokes Premiership.

Well youngster Livingstone made his first appearance of the season when he replaced injured Liam Donnelly after just 15-minutes of their 1-1 draw with Celtic on Wednesday.

But Livingstone was then subbed for Curtis Main with 18-minutes remaining after the 20-year-old defender was affected by cramp.

Robinson admits the pace of the game against Celtic caused Livingstone’s muscle fatigue but believes that will show him just how fit he’s required to be to cope in the top flight.

Robinson said: “In terms of Adam, people clamour for young boys to be in the team and he’s able to give me 60 minutes but he’s got to give me more than that.

“He’s got to be able to stay on the pitch, it’s a rude awakening to the level you have to get to fitness wise and that goes for Liam Donnelly as well.

“Those boys can only change that themselves, we can’t change that. They have to buy into being a footballer and really push themselves because they have got the talent.

“There is no doubt we’ve got kids with talent but as was shown on Saturday if you put too many of them in you get a little bit of a performance like [the defeat against Livingston] but our standards were set against Celtic - now we need a bit of consistency.

“Players will get chances because of the amount of games, as I said previously they’ve got to be fit enough to do that.

“The young players have got to be fit enough. With their ability they’ve got to match that with their fitness levels to actually contribute to the first team.

“Adam’s purely fatigue, he got cramp. It’s a case that the game was very quick for him and that’s something he has to improve, he has to take that on board because he’s got a lot of talent as have all our young boys.

“In terms of Liam, it’s a calf injury and we’ll assess him and see where we go with that one.”

Robinson reckons the youngsters must look to the likes of penalty save hero Mark Gillespie, goalscorer Danny Johnson and Conor Sammon, who was making his first start since September, and be ready to take their chance.

He said: “It reminded me a little bit of when we missed a penalty at Kilmarnock and it sort of gave them the impetus to go on, it was like a goal for them.

“The same with ourselves, at 2-0 perhaps the game is out of your reach a little bit against a team of Celtic’s calibre but Mark’s kept us in it.

“He’s waited patiently, Mark, and people like Connor Sammon, Danny Johnstone, the example to younger boys in terms of not getting chances and when they do they are fit and ready to go.

“So we’ve got some very good pros that they’ve got the chance to look up to.”