Livingston owner Pearse Flynn will axe "up to half the playing staff" after the club's relegation to the Bell's First Division.

The West Lothian club bade farewell to the Bank of Scotland Premier League with a disappointing single-goal defeat at Falkirk.

Daniel McBreen scored the only goal of the game for the Bairns in the 74th minute to leave Livi as the worst club in SPL history.

Job cuts are also now set to kick in as Livingston prepare for life in the Scottish Football League.

Flynn told BBC Scotland: "Some of the players are on SPL wages and have not been performing very well.

"We will move those on. Up to half the playing staff will go and we'll bring in players John Robertson thinks can win us the First Division next term."

He added: "It's horrific. There's no easy way to do it.

"But we are leaving the SPL and going to a division that no longer has a sponsor, so it's probably the worst time to be relegated.

"We're trying to give John a decent budget and are making cuts to allow that to happen.

"Only Dundee United and Hibs have managed to come straight back up in a season, so we're putting everything we can into bouncing straight back."

Meanwhile, Livi midfielder Wes Hoolahan will apologise to manager John Robertson for storming up the tunnel after being substituted in the 66th minute for Robert Snodgrass.

The Livi boss added to the heat of the moment by gesturing at the former Shelbourne player as if indicating his actions were childish.

However, a contrite Hoolahan said afterwards: "I thought I was playing well in the second half and everybody gets disappointed when they are substituted.

"The manager never said anything to me, but I will obviously apologise to him.

"It was a heat of the moment thing and just shows I care. I wanted to win to show the fans that we can."

Robertson played down the incident down, saying: "Wes was disappointed to come off and that's his prerogative.

"He wasn't fit to play against Motherwell last Wednesday due to a sore back, but we played him against Falkirk.

"He actually signalled to the bench two minutes earlier he was struggling and we decided to take him off.

"If he's not happy coming off, then that's up to him. He went straight up the tunnel and I don't have a problem with it.

"But, at the end of the day, Wes is the man who is going to have to come back and face it sooner or later."

Livi's final points tally of 18 was three fewer than the previous record low set by St Johnstone four years ago.

But Robertson also highlighted just how damaging relegation to the First Division will be to the Almondvale club.

He said: "Three senior players and nine youth-team players found out on Thursday they are being released and the rest will find out on Monday or Tuesday.

"There have been meetings with the chairman Pearse Flynn and chief executive Vivien Kyles and there were a lot of players down because they have been released.

"The budget will be cut by around 65% to 70% but that will still leave us with a competitive budget for next season.

"We will all have to do our best but it will be difficult.

"The First Division is a quality league, there's not a bad team in it."

In contrast, Falkirk head coach John Hughes claimed his club had achieved their ambition this season - simply retaining their SPL status.

He said: "There was still a lot to play for and we got our reward by jumping one place in the table.

"We would like to have jumped two places because, financially, there's money to go with it, but to finish 10th is creditable.

"We knew how difficult it was going to be but we got better as the season went on.

"Of course, we are pleased to survive and it will be the same next year.

"We can't afford to stagnate on or off the park, we need to keep driving this club forward."