Delighted boss Hopkin gives all the credit to his players
Livingston boss David Hopkin was quick to praise his players after he sealed consecutive promotions.
The former Scotland international (right) has guided the Lions to success in both of his full seasons in charge – but insists the players deserve all the credit.
He said:“It’s a fantastic achievement. We knew coming into the game that it would be a very tough challenge to get a draw against a good team like Partick and that’s how it proved to be but I have to give great credit to the players because they’ve been terrific.
“It’s been a tremendous season and to go and beat Dundee United and Partick over two legs is really a magnificent achievement.
“I asked the players at half-time to give me another 45 minutes like the first half and they definitely rose to the challenge.
“We scored a great goal just after half-time and that really gave us something to hold on to. The longer the game went, with the players that we have, I knew we weren’t going to concede.”
He added:“The longer the season went on, the more we thought we could do something.
“To get into the play-offs and then finish second was incredible. I then said to the players that it’s now a semi-final and final and to forget what they did in the league because they were now cup games and I think that’s how we played them.
“Today was probably the most satisfying game because I knew that the players would dig deep for me and they did that. I spoke to Neil Alexander before the game and told him to make sure that he was a hero and he was. “To get to the Premiership is great credit to the players. “Two years ago after we were relegated to League One, it was obviously ludicrous to suggest that we’d be in this position and the biggest and most important challenge I had was to get the club back into the Championship – that was my aim. “The club could easily have gone part-time and I could have walked away but I didn’t because I felt that if I could build my own team and be given time, then we could kick on and that’s been the case.”