Livingston manager David Martindale feels it is a plus that his men have not had a midweek game before they take to the Fir Park pitch on Saturday. Motherwell travelled to Falkirk on Wednesday, a game Brian Rice, the club’s head of football operations, and a club scout attended.
Martindale said there were advantages of being there, one of them is seeing the shape of the sides, but he will watch from the cosy comfort of his living room, getting the benefit of replays. That information will be backed up with statistics from several sources and his men will travel to Lanarkshire well-briefed.
The squad have talked about how the season has gone so far, from match day one to now, and Martindale stressed: “There are a lot of positives, the one negative is we need points.”
Looking back, a number of teams have been taken to the wire without Livi getting a result, and, what the manager called, “big decisions” have gone against the West Lothian side.
There are, he conceded, areas which the individuals have to improve on, but he declined to go into details.
What he did say was: “We have given away a lot of poor goals in terms of shirt pulling, not picking men up at set plays. I look at open play, and I look at (games against) Rangers, set play, Dundee United, dropped two points, set play, penalties at Falkirk and Hibs and against Motherwell, the guys have got to tidy up on individual errors and set plays.”
It has, he said, been a steep learning curve for some, but Martindale continues chart the way ahead. He said: “From the league that we left two years ago to now, to where we are now, I think it is a much stronger Premiership at the bottom and more competitive at the top.”
Overall, the long-standing boss now has a strong platform to work from as Livingston, he declared, now “runs properly as a football club” with a proper business structure.
He stressed: “We are in a much, much better place and I think it is the start of something special at Livingston because I feel we are not far away from kicking on.”
Martindale was full of praise for the club’s new American-based owner Calvin Ford and he said: “He is always asking how he can support us, he has been like that from day one.”
The forthright manager admitted that prior to Ford taking over it had been much more difficult than people understood to keep the club going in the last few years, and he added: “In previous seasons I was not so sure I wanted to be here at times, I was emotionally tied to it.”
Martindale said he does not need validation, and admitted to being his biggest critic, but he added: “At some point, I have to ask questions of me. Would a fresh insight help the group? I would need to take that decision. I want to be at Livingston, I love being at Livingston, especially now, I desperately want to be at the football club, but we need to be better as a group.”
The club currently prop up the rest in the 12-strong division and Martindale said: “I knew this season would be difficult, but I don’t feel the points on the board reflect performances, and it is up to me to change that.
“I do not think we are where we are through lack of ability. We need a wee bit more, but the table does not reflect the feeling within the coaching staff and the players. ”
