Raffaele hopes he’s staying put
Italian enjoys celebrations and looks to next term
Italian winger Raffaele de Vita soaked in the success of a third league title with Livingston – and admitted he’s desperate to continue his second spell at the club.
The 29-year-old was a key figure in the side’s last title success in the third tier in 2011.
He departed the club later that summer for Swindon Town having spent the first three years of his career in West Lothian, picking up successive league winners’ medals with Division Three and Division Two titles.
The fans’ favourite returned to Livingston in October and netted three times in 26 appearances.
And the former Ross County star paid tribute to the club’s long-suffering fans after lifting the League One trophy following Saturday’s 4-1 trouncing of Peterhead.
He said: “Moments like this are why I signed for the club again. We have to cherish every moment of this because they really don’t happen very often in football.
“You hope every season is like this but it doesn’t work out like that.
“I thought the first half was some of the best football we’d played this season, to be honest. We passed it well and scored some well-worked goals.
“Obviously you can be a bit more relaxed once you’ve won the league and that lack of pressure can help you out but I think that points to the fact that we’ve respected all our opponents and not taken anyone lightly even after we’d won the league.
“We tried to go out there and win every game which is the right thing to do.
“It’s always good to win the league, whichever one it is, because it’s proof that you’ve worked hard. It’s never an easy thing to do and we’ve battled hard at times for this day.
“We’ve had to go to difficult places against teams that are really tough to beat and picked up wins, so that speaks volumes about the talent and work-rate of this team.”
He had special praise for the fans and said he hopes to be playing in West Lothian again next season.
“Livingston fans have been through a lot the last few years and they really deserve this success,” he said.
“They’ve been tremendous and they deserve to see their side in the Championship at the very least and that’s where Livingston Football Club needs to be every single year.
“I’ve said to the gaffer that I want to stay at the club and hopefully we can sort something out this week because I want to be at Livingston next season.”