Marvin Bartley asks Livingston to make club history by avoiding relegation

Marvin Bartley has lived an unlikely football tale, but told Livingston players to write their own story in their bid to avoid relegation.

The 2-0 win at St Mirren last weekend was only Livi’s second William Hill Premiership victory of the season.

With just four fixtures remaining, the West Lothian side remain bottom of the table, nine points behind Kilmarnock and 11 behind the Buddies as they prepare to host Aberdeen on Friday night.

Bartley is clear on where a great escape would feature in his career, which already has a remarkable survival story.

The former Bournemouth and Hibernian midfielder, who stepped up from assistant to boss at Livi in February with the club winless in 24 games and six points adrift, said: “It would be the best thing that I’ve ever achieved for me personally in football.

“I was part of a team, I think we were on minus 17 and we survived (in League Two) when I was at Bournemouth. So that took some going.

“But to inherit the team at the time I did, for the fixtures that we did have, especially at the start of that as well, yeah, it’d be the best thing that I’ve ever achieved in football.

“I think Bournemouth actually went into administration twice. We started the season, I think it was minus 17.

“We managed to stay up that season, and then we got promoted the following season.

“When you look back now, definitely, it was unbelievable to achieve that. And, again, that’s probably helped me in terms of my mentality because we didn’t really care about the league table. It was just the next game, the next game.

“You had to. There’s no point looking at the league table. You’re winning like three or four games and you’re looking at the other teams and they’re still going up the way. So, we did that and then got promoted the following season.

“I try not to ever go back and say, ‘oh, look what I did’. I’d just say try and write your own stories. Obviously, there’s stories out there.

“Leicester’s probably the biggest one in terms of the Premier League and them surviving (relegation then winning the title the following year in 2016).

“But you can write your own story here and that’s why I try and remind them.”

Bartley’s attention is solely on the visit of the Dons who, under new manager Stephen Robinson, have won their past two games.

The Livi boss, who revealed Jeremy Bokila has returned to training after missing out the last two games, said: “He’s put his own stamp on the team. They’ve got really good players and they’re in a good place.”