Livingston boss hopes to have big players returning for Premiership drop battle
dailyrecord.co.ukLivingston boss David Martindale hopes he’s getting big players back at the right time to help stave off relegation from the Premiership.And he hopes his side can take great confidence from their performance in a 4-2 Scottish Cup quarter-final exit at holders Celtic on Sunday, in which the game was locked at 2-2 going into the final five minutes, as they head for Hibs at Easter Road on Saturday.Martindale says he had a “makeshift” midfield for the Celtic Park clash, but hopes to welcome stars like Scott Pittman, James Penrice and Mick Devlin in the coming weeks.He said: “That was a makeshift midfield we put out at Celtic, and I thought every one of them was brilliant – Steven Kelly, Steven Bradley, Jamie Brandon, I thought they were all fantastic.“Jason Holt phoned in sick, I’ve been not well myself and a lot of the boys have had the flu.“Scott Pittman is injured, David Carson was cup-tied, Andrew Shinnie had a wee bit of a problem with his groins during the week in training.“That midfield three...
Jamie Brandon and Steven Bradley have not played there before for me, Steven Kelly is more of an attacking centre-mid, but I thought the three of them were great.“We had big players missing, and hopefully we’re going to have them return in the next couple of weeks after the Hibs game – Scott Pittman, James Penrice, Mick Devlin, just to name a few, so big players.“They’re hopefully coming back at the business end of the season and can hopefully help us go on and get points to try and stay in this league.”Martindale knows Livi face a real battle to stay in the top flight, and says a trip to Edinburgh on Saturday isn’t ideal after facing the defending champions.He said: “They don’t get any easier.
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