Crawford inspired by old Ayr pal Shankland’s call-up

ROBBIE CRAWFORD is delighted years of hard work has paid dividends for pal Lawrence Shankland – and he hopes 90 minutes of graft can now bring big rewards for Livingston against Celtic this weekend.

Crawford is thrilled his former Ayr United team-mate earned himself a dream call-up to the Scotland squad this week after rebuilding his career at Somerset Park before switching to Dundee United in the summer.

And the Livingston midfielder admits Shankland can be an inspiration as he prepares to battle it out with champions Celtic tomorrow.

He said: “It’s brilliant. Lawrence has been incredible for the last two or three years now and it’s unbelievable what he’s done.

“I’m delighted for him, he’s a great guy and he’s worked ever so hard, so it’s credit to him. It shows what can happen if you work hard.

“We’ll work our nuts off on Sunday and see what happens, and hope that we get some reward for it.

“I’m looking forward to coming up against guys like Scott Brown and Callum McGregor, Ryan Christie, those types of players. It will be great to test myself against players like that.

“I’ve never played against Celtic, we always got Rangers in the cups when I was at Ayr, so I’m looking forward to testing myself against them.

“They’ve been the best team in Scotland for the last few years now, so it will be good to go up against them.”

Livingston have lost their last four games, with a home reverse to Aberdeen sandwiched between away and home defeats to Rangers.

Last weekend’s 2-1 setback against Hamilton Accies left the Lions without a victory since August 31, but - buoyed by pushing Rangers close at Almondvale – Crawford is convinced the West Lothian outfit can cause an upset against the champions.

The 25-year-old added: “We can take confidence from the Rangers game here. We went toe to toe with them and the game could probably have gone either way.

“We know Celtic are a great team and what they’ve done in the last few years is incredible. But we’re a good side as well and we believe we can take something from the game.

“We’ll go about our business and try to get a result. We believe in ourselves, that we can go out there and do a job, and hopefully we can get the right result.”