Livi’s party boys Byrne candle at both ends
BY GARY RALSTON SHAUN BYRNE celebrated dumping Hearts by piling on the pounds and going on a pub crawl in Dublin.
Jambos stars ditched their Christmas trip to Prague on the back of the 5-0 humiliation at the Tony Macaroni last Friday.
Livi players on the other hand painted the Emerald Isle red and ended up enjoying a get-together with half of British football.
Midfielder Byrne insists they earned their break but the fancy dress is back in the cupboard in favour of the working overalls for today’s trip to Hibs.
Byrne said: “We went for our Christmas trip to Dublin last weekend and had a fancy dress day on Sunday. We pulled names from a hat and were paired with sports costumes.
“I was a sumo wrestler and we had jockeys, cricketers, tennis players, wrestlers, Formula One drivers and baseball stars.
“The toots from car horns as we walked along the road were hilarious. It did look crazy, admittedly.
“My sumo suit was a nightmare. I couldn’t even get to the bar never mind sit down. One of the lads had to pull the zip down at the back and deflate me.
“Dublin is a great place and we bumped into football teams galore in The Auld Dubliner in Temple Bar – Ross County, Stenhousemuir, Raith Rovers as well as the likes of Doncaster from England.
“We deserved to let our hair down given how well we’ve done.”
Victory today would take Livi beyond the 30-point tally they set for the season and could lift them as high as fifth.
Byrne added: “Teams are setting up differently against us and that shows the respect we’ve earned.
“We’re not safe yet but if we go beyond 30 points we’ll see how far we can go, maybe even top six.”