Following Saturday’s 0-2 defeat to Motherwell, Livingston have reshuffled their management structure. Long serving manager David Martindale moves from the touchline to the board room, becoming the clubs sporting director with assistant manager and ex-player Marvin Bartley taking the reins in West Lothian.
Livingston are rooted to the bottom of the Scottish Premiership, six points behind 11th place Kilmarnock. They are also currently on a 22-match winless run in the league, equalling a 21st century record set by Hamilton Academical in 2010/11.
This will be the first managerial role for new head coach Marvin Bartley since leaving Queen of the South in 2024. The former Livingston and Hibs midfielder has also been Martindale’s assistant between 2021-23 and returned to the club in the same capacity following his departure from the Dumfries club.
Following Saturday’s defeat, Martindale shot down any talk of him no longer being Livingston manager, he said: “I’m a great believer, you start worrying about relegation, you start worrying about getting sacked, I’ll guarantee you what’s gonna happen. Both.
“I’m never going to approach my life like that. I’m never going to worry, I’ll never be that person… I get up every day to make Livingston a better place, a better football club.
“I will never ever come into this football club fearing for my job, that’s not to say my jobs safe and i will never ever come into this football club thinking I can’t help this football club.”
Throughout the rest of the press conference, Martindale refused to pull any punches- some of his comments may have alluded to a lack of confidence in his side, which may have inspired Livingston to move in another direction with the club staring relegation in the face.
The former coach didn’t hesitate to imply that Livingston were a yo-yo club for example, he said: “I know where we’re going as a club, and people can look back on this in 12 months, 18 months time time. We’ve been here before, we’ve went down, we’ve came back up. That’s kind of where we are at as a club at this point in time, bottom Prem, top Champ.”
He would also not hesitate to throw his players under the bus for their part in Saturday’s result, and the season as a whole. Martindale said: “I think I’ve sat here and took it most weeks. I think the players need to do more, because that first goal is shambolic from a few players, and the second one isn’t much better.”
Livingston will now look towards Wednesday night, where they host Falkirk. Even though a home win against John McGlynn’s side is the only time Livingston have tasted League victory this season, Martindale maintained that this wouldn’t translate into confidence this time around, he said: “If you look at where we are and you look at where Falkirk are in this stage of the season, from the stage in the season where it was. I think its two completely different football clubs at this point on the park.
Falkirk have had a great season, they’ve got points on the board, football becomes a wee bit easier, running becomes a wee bit easier, tackling, pressing becomes a wee bit easier. But, where we are, everything becomes a wee bit harder.”
Even when considering Livingston’s recent downturn in form, there’s no doubt that David Martindale will be hailed as a success, maybe even a club legend in West Lothian, having solidified their place in the Scottish Premiership for so long, whilst also guiding them to the 2020/21 League Cup Final, securing promotion back to the Premiership at the first time of asking last season whilst adding the Scottish Challenge Cup to the trophy cabinet along the way.
Marvin Bartley has spent years under Martindale’s tutelage and will look to make the same successful jump from assistant to head coach that Martindale himself made in 2020.
