David Martindale proud of Livingston effort in ‘harder’ Premiership

David Martindale feels his Livingston side are holding their own in a stronger William Hill Premiership as he stressed Scottish football should focus on the positives.

Livi have picked up six points from eight games since their promotion but losing stoppage-time goals against Hearts, Dundee and Rangers has cost them another three points.

Martindale feels Scotland’s top flight is a more competitive division than the one they were relegated from in 2024 and used Saturday’s opponents, Hibernian, as a prime example.

The Edinburgh club’s fortunes improved after bringing in Malky Mackay as sporting director and David Gray as head coach following a turbulent period in terms of managerial changes.

Martindale said: “I think this level’s actually got a little bit harder from where it was last year and where it probably was the year before when we got relegated.

“You just need to look at the two Edinburgh teams. Predominantly over the last decade, you maybe had one doing well, and one going through transitional periods.

“David’s done a great job. Malky going into Hibs has helped them massively. I actually knew they would make Hibs better.

“You’ve now got someone upstairs helping make good football decisions, which helps David massively. And David knows the club inside out, and he’s got a really good group of players, and they’ve recruited really, really well.

“You could say something very similar for Hearts. They got a really top manager, experienced manager (Derek McInnes) in. But you need to get upstairs right, and Tony Bloom coming in has allowed Hearts to develop that side of the game, which has really, really helped.

“I’m looking forward to playing Motherwell, their manager (Jens Berthel Askou) has brought a different type of football into the Premiership.

“So I think new management, new structures at clubs, new structures within clubs, have really helped.

“Then you look at Celtic. You’re playing against Brendan Rodgers, top, top manager. What have they spent most summers – £20million?

“Does that make the league better? Does that push us to be better? Because the challenge in front of us has become harder. So does that then make the ones below that better again? I think it does.

“So the Premiership’s got a lot more competitive. And I feel we’re holding our own, and I think there’s more to come from the group also and there’s more to come from myself.”

While much of the focus has been on Celtic’s struggles in the transfer market and Rangers dropping points, Martindale believes Scottish football should be better at selling the overall improvement.

“See in Scotland, we’re absolutely brilliant about focusing on the negatives,” he said.

“I bring boys up from down south, I’ve had boys come in from top, top level in European football. And I’ll tell you what, they’re not much better than us.

“But if you listen to the narrative down south, the marketing, the financials, you would be led to believe that we’re kind of a lower-class league. Down south’s magnificent and everybody’s brilliant. I don’t see that.

“I think the marketing of the product’s better. I think the financials of the product is far greater.

“But I think the level of Scottish football, we’re very, very good at underselling it.”