David Martindale says he will never brush off a defeat to either side of the Old Firm after watching his men being swept aside by Celtic, saying that his relegation-threatened team have to fight for every precious point available.
Livingston managed to frustrate Celtic in the first half at Almondvale and made it to the interval with the game still goalless, but a mistake by Stephen Bradley cost them dearly just after the break and the champions were able to pick them off thereafter.
Martindale says though that the Premiership’s bottom club can never accept defeat in such a manner, and have to believe they can get something from every match if they are going to stay up.
“I’ve not really seen it like that,” Martindale said.
“I’ve not been like that. That’s kind of accepting defeat and I’ve not been like that.
“I think you’re league position changes that mind-set slightly. But I don’t feel like that, I don’t get out my bed to come to this game to get beat. We needed something from the game, we needed something from the game at Parkhead.
“It’s easy to probably fall into that mind-set. It’s a part of being in the Premiership at a club of our size. But it depresses me.
“I want to get out of my bed every day, I want to win games of football. I don’t want to accept ‘Aw it was Celtic, it was Rangers, it was Hibs, Aberdeen, Hearts.’ I don’t want to be that person.
“I can see why people sometimes say that but definitely not from me. And I don’t think the players are like that either. Neither them nor the staff feel like that.
“You go out second half and to lose the goal we lost was probably the story of the season, if I’m being honest. Some bad decision making.
“Wee Stephen’s got to do better. Up to that point I felt he was doing okay. But he’s got to make better decisions. They take the ball off him, they cut it back...there’s then a shot off which Shamal (George) makes a decent save but it comes off Jamie Brandon and goes in the net.
“That’s the first goal and it’s very avoidable from our defensive point of view.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel