MARTINDALE’S THE MAIN MAN
Interim boss has proved he’s right choice to lead Lions
DAVIE MARTINDALE tries to give the impression of a man who is neither here nor there when it comes to the permanence of his position at Livingston’s helm, or how quickly it happens.
His players, on the other hand, are unequivocal. I n words, certainly, but far more in deed.
There’s a school of thought that says the assistant manager has always been far more in control of the club than anyone would let on anyway.
But the Lions’ two performances si nce he made t he f ormal transition to take charge following Gary Holt’s resignation suggest there’s little need to continue the pretence; he can cope fine being front and centre.
Ignoring the noise around Dundee United’s Covid confusion, Martindale’s side were back at their oppressive, relentless, committed best, doing all the things they did to earn them a spot in the top six last season.
Their pressure was unabating, their energy seemingly limitless, their snap in the tackle was audible as well as visible.
It resulted in their first league win in nine weeks, a grisly first half forgotten as goals from Scott Pittman and Marvin Bartley after the break more than enough to see off a still-strong United XI.
And it surely means the ‘interim’ will be dropped as an adjective from Martindale’s title sooner rather than later, a sentiment echoed in the dressing room.
‘Definitely,’ insisted full-back Nicky Devlin. ‘We all respect Davie and love working with him. If that’s the way the club go, I’m sure he’ll have the backing from every one of the players and the coaching staff.
‘It’s not changed too much, to be fair. He’s just kind of carried on from what we had before. We knew it wasn’t much that had to change, we were giving away slack goals and it was killing us. We knew if we could get rid of that, we would start getting wins.
‘So we started the second half the way we started the Betfred Cup game last week, we came out of the traps fast and made it hard for them to get into a rhythm.
‘We know they’ve got good players, so we wanted to start fast and disrupt them, as well as trying to get on the front foot.
‘Is relentless the best way to describe it? That’s the way we play and get results. It’s the way we’ve done it for the last three or four years. We know if we play like that, not many teams will be able to stand up to it.’
If Livvy had forgotten their roots, i t didn’t take l ong to re-establish them. Orchestrated by a towering and vocal performance from skipper Bartley, they took a stranglehold of the game after the break and didn’t let go.
Pittman’s goal was outstanding from him, but poor from United, who should have known better than to give the midfielder free rein to run from the halfway line.
By the time Liam Smith decided, too late, to engage him on the edge of the box, the die was cast and the ball was on its way to Ben Siegrist’s bottom corner.
The second had a degree of fortune about it, Bartley’s first contact f rom Josh Mullin’s corner bobbling back off Mark Connolly, allowing the 34-year-old the chance to scissor-kick home at the near post.
It was little more than they deserved, however, against a United side… well, a side from which no one knew what to expect until the team sheets appeared.
With nine men out and isolating, as well as their three- man management team, there was a belief they’d be a lot weaker than they were.
In the end, all they were missing, top scorer Nicky Clark apart, was depth, with seven teenagers populating the bench and staying there for the 90 minutes.
‘Lawrence Shankland and Marc McNulty up f ront?’ l aughed Martindale. ‘There’s not a team, outside of the Old Firm, who wouldn’t bite your hand off for either one of them, far l ess both.’
‘When you hear they have got nine players out,’ added Devlin, ‘you automatically think it will be nine starters because that’s the way everything seems to be just now.
‘But we always thought they’d keep the same shape, which they did. In the end, it was three great points.’
LIVINGSTON (4-1-4-1): Stryjek 6; Devlin 6, Fitzwater 7, Guthrie 7, Serrano 7; Bartley 8; Mullin 7, Sibbald 7 (Robinson 86), Pittman 7, Forrest 6 (Brown 90); Poplatnik 5 (Emmanuel-Thomas 71).
McCrorie, McMillan, Brown, Taylor-Sinclair, Ambrose, Tiffoney, Lawson. Mullin, Bartley, Fitzwater, Robinson, Stryjek.
Siegrist 6; Connolly 6, Edwards 6, Reynolds 6; Smith 6, Powers 6 (Appere 68), Fuchs 5, Harkes 6, Sporle 6; McNulty 5, Shankland 5. Mehmet, Neilson, Robson, Hutchison, Watson, Duffy, Caves, Malcolm. Edwards, Reynolds. Marvin Bartley. Don Robertson.