The boss told me: ‘If you’re not good enough for Hibs, why should I want you?’
STEVEN BradlEy admits he was determined to prove davie Martindale wrong from their very first meeting after the livingston manager questioned whether he was good enough for the lions.
Following a trial spell with livingston, that included scoring in two friendly wins during last month’s training camp in Turkey, Bradley signed a two-and-a-half-year deal in a switch from Hibernian.
With the January transfer window now open, he is expected to make his debut in today’s Premiership visit of Motherwell.
It all turned out well for the 20-year-old winger in the end but Bradley admits that a forthright first conversation with Martindale had him doubting whether livingston would be his next step.
‘The manager keeps you grounded. When I first met him I never expected him to be so honest,’ said Bradley. ‘He basically asked: “If you’re not good enough for Hibs then how are you going to be good enough for me?”. I just told him I wanted to prove I was and he gave me the chance in Turkey and it worked well.
‘you don’t want coaches telling you that you’re doing brilliantly, you’d rather they tell you what you’re not doing well so you can work on stuff.
‘I wanted to come in, work as hard as I can and show him what I can do.’
Bradley has impressed so much, in fact, that Martindale’s initial plan to send him out on loan to gain further first-team experience has been scrapped.
Having spent temporary spells at both ayr United and dundalk last season, the winger added: ‘at the start of it, we went to Turkey and he said he couldn’t promise me game time and that I might need to go on loan.
‘Then I did well in Turkey and I scored in both of the games. Since then I have done well, so I don’t think that’s the plan (to send him out on loan) any more.
‘It was a great chance to get to know the boys and it was great of Hibs to let me go there as well. They didn’t need to let me do that and I was thankful.
‘There wasn’t a point where I thought I might stick it out at Hibs. I just saw it as my time being up there and I was happy because I did want to try something new.
‘The manager has been great with me and everyone in the building is very welcoming, it’s a really tight group here.’
livingston are in seventh place in the table after the midweek draw with St Mirren, six points ahead of today’s opponents.
Motherwell boss Steven Hammell expects his team to be in better shape this afternoon after emphasising the importance of the trip to West lothian.
The Fir Park manager is without four defenders and two forwards through lengthy lay-offs and his problems mounted ahead of last Wednesday’s 3-0 defeat by rangers.
defender Paul McGinn and midfielder Sean Goss started despite being affected by illness and striker Kevin van Veen was only fit for a substitute role. But the latter is expected to start against livi and centre-back Shane Blaney will be eligible to play following his move from Sligo rovers.
Hammell said: ‘We are hoping to be in a little bit of a better position. Kevin wasn’t totally available for the rangers game and even a couple of the players that started — Paul and Sean — were struggling before the game with illness.
‘We have not had our problems to seek in terms of personnel, but we are hoping we will be in a little better shape for the livingston game.’
Motherwell beat livingston in august to make it three victories from their opening four Premiership matches, but they have only won two of the next 14.
‘It’s a big game, we are under no illusions with that,’ said Hammell. ‘We know with the kind of run we are on just now, the importance of every game becomes higher and higher.’
louis Moult’s ongoing absence and Joe Efford’s thigh injury mean Hammell is eager to strengthen in the attacking areas this month.
‘We’ve got a long, long list of players and priorities and targets,’ he said. ‘We need help in the forward areas and that’s our priority.’
Davie keeps you grounded. I never expected him to be quite so honest!