The showing was in sharp contrast to their listless, outclassed visitors.

Holt said: "The work-rate is something we asked of them, we asked if they can go an extra 10 percent.

"People go on about three games in a week – but tiredness is a mental state. It's a load of nonsense.

"We asked them if they could go through it, push through it – and they did."

Livi's victory could have been even more handsome but for the showing of Killie goalkeeper Laurentiu Branescu, who denied Scott Pittman, Aymen Souda and Ricki Lamie in the first half.

Holt added: "We were comfortable winners and it could have been more. We scored three in the second half but I was disappointed we were not 3-0 up at half-time!

"Their goalkeeper was their best player, so that says a lot.

"But I just told my players at half-time not to get frustrated and get caught on the break.

"Killie are a hard team to break down, so to get three goals in the end is tremendous."

Kilmarnock boss Angelo Alessio, who has seen his charges win just one of their last seven games, cut a downbeat figure following the comprehensive reverse, ruing sloppy errors and criticising his players for a lack of courage on the ball.

And, unlike Holt, he believes fatigue may be a factor as he hinted that changes could be in the offing.

Alessio added: "Livingston deserved this win. We conceded three easy goals and they played better than us. It's difficult to say anything good about this game.

"We have to reflect on it and work hard at training because we didn't play well – maybe I have to look to change some players because a few of them looked tired.

"We didn't create enough opportunities to score, we made a lot of mistakes and we gave our keeper a lot of back-passes. I don't like seeing that. I don't want this. I want a team who have the courage to play."