David Martindale strangely names three Celtic players who could be spooked in Livingston

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Livingston manager David Martindale has strangely named three Celtic players who could be spooked by the Tony Macaroni Arena.

The Hoops continue their Premiership campaign with a trip to West Lothian on Saturday lunchtime. After enduring a torrid spell in Livingston, we’ve actually won our past two matches there very convincingly.

Under Ange Postecoglou, we triumphed 3-1 Almondvale en route to our glorious 2021/22 title, before winning 3-0 there last season.

That second victory arrived between UEFA Champions League meetings with Shakhtar Donetsk and Real Madrid. Yet, Martindale still thinks his side’s ground could be a bit of a shock for some Celtic stars, with three in particular on his mind.

“There is a mental energy, mental fatigue,” he said, as reported by the Daily Record. “Not just the physical side of it after playing in Europe. You have to try and use every advantage you can.

“Let’s be honest, the synthetic surface, we all want to play on hybrid surfaces of course we do, you have to try and use all these advantages, positives in our favour.

“When you go away to Parkhead, the surface is slick, 55,000 fans and it’s a big park. They use that to their advantage and we have to try and swing that round to our advantage.

“There’s players at Celtic who have not played here before. The boy Palma, Holm, Lagerbielke, they are leaving Feyenoord and that environment and coming to Livingston on Saturday.

“Although they will be helped by 8,000 Celtic fans being in the stadium so it will feel like a home game to them.”

While Martindale’s public naming of three opposition players who could be spooked in Livingston seems a little daft, the overall point is one that Celtic should consider.

While most of our first-team players, and Brendan Rodgers, are aware of the difficulties associated with the Tony Macaroni, we really can’t afford players to be off their game.

Livingston are as hard-working a side as you will find in the top flight. That, coupled with the troublesome plastic pitch, makes it a potentially difficult afternoon for us.

We’ve had the bit between our teeth on our last two visits there, and that has proved vital in securing maximum points. We must have that same intent on Saturday, even if we are still reeling from Tuesday’s defeat in Rotterdam.

In other news, Aiden McGeady is already looking forward to “massive” Celtic game