Livingston manager David Martindale says this weekend’s Scottish Cup trip to Celtic Park is a distraction for his team and that he’d prefer to be playing in the Scottish Premiership.
Martindale’s side are currently locked in a brutal relegation fight at the bottom of the league table and look to be the team most at risk of dropping to the Championship.
The Livi boss would prefer to stay focused on those challenges and has even admitted he has a concern his team could be “absolutely spanked” up against Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic side.
Martindale emphasises underdog status at Celtic Park
He said [Daily Record, 03/08 print edition]: “I want to be playing league games, honestly. You keep looking at that league and six points behind (Ross County), it is annoying me! I just want to play league games.
“You are going to Parkhead, it’s a wee bit of a distraction. Would I rather be playing league football? Personally, I would. You have the flip side also, you go to Celtic and could get absolutely spanked, look at Dundee.
“They are capable of doing it to anybody. You are going there trying to look at the positives, we’re going there with a bit of belief, and your mindset is probably slightly different from a league game.
“We’ve gone to Parkhead and got results over the years. You need to be really at it and a lot to fall in your favour. You need Celtic to be a wee bit off it. But we’ve shown we can do it.”
The underdog status will suit Martindale and his team this weekend. It’s something he’ll be looking to tap into with his squad ahead of kick-off. So it’s little surprise to hear him speaking like this.
Celtic have secured positive results against Livingston in both matches between the side this season.
Back in September, the Bhoys won 3-0 in West Lothian despite going down to ten men within half an hour.
Then, in December, Kyogo Furuhashi and Liam Scales were on target in a 2-0 league win at Celtic Park.
After exiting the League Cup earlier than anyone wanted, Celtic will be keen to book a semi-final place with another victory this weekend.
Hopefully, they show the kind of form that worries Martindale, rather than what we witnessed at Tynecastle last week.
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