Devlin the detail: Livi captain believes his side will
THEIR preparations may be geared towards peaking for Rangers at the end of the month, but Nicky Devlin insists Livingston are fully aware of the benefits of getting off to a flier in the Premier Sports Cup.
The Lions kick off the new Premiership campaign against Rangers on July 30 but, first, resume the competitive action against Albion Rovers this Saturday.
With group games against Inverness, Cove Rangers and Kelty Hearts to follow, Devlin knows the Almondvale men need massive improvements from Saturday’s error-strewn 3-0 defeat to Morton.
An Ayo Obileye own goal and two mistakes from keeper Max Stryjek that gifted Michael Garrity a late double gave manager David Martindale plenty of food for thought - as did injuries to strike partner Bruce Anderson and Jack Hamilton.
Devlin is confident the Almondvale men will get things right in the coming weeks ahead of the league opener.
But, after progressing all the way to the final two seasons ago, the skipper knows the importance of hitting the ground running in the cup first.
The 28-year-old, who finally married partner Lauren this summer after two Covid-19 delays to their wedding, said: “It’s not about results but you want to get into good habits, and winning games and keeping clean sheets is something we want to do going forward.
“So, the earlier you start doing that the better, regardless of if there’s anything on the line.
“We made mistakes, we’ll learn from them, and make sure we don’t make them when it comes to the time when points are on the line.
“The start of the season has come around pretty fast from the end of last season. Saturday was our first official game.
“We’re still getting there and building towards the new season but we know we have to start better than that.
“We know how good the League Cup can be for the club. A couple of years ago we managed to get through and started the group stages really – and managed to get all the way to the final.
“Last year, we really toiled in the group stage and were lucky to get through.
“We know how important it is to start well in that competition and if you get the group stage you’re a couple of games away from Hampden.
“It’s one we want to do well in but we know we have to be at it from the start.”
He added: “Everything is probably in preparation for the first league game but the four cup games are ones we want to win.
“We want to get through and we want to get to their later rounds of the competition.
“And to do that we’ll have to be much better than we were on Saturday. We’ll have to start that cup campaign a lot better.”