David Martindale: Freshness gives Livingston advantage against Partick Thistle

Livingston manager David Martindale thinks his side will have a physical advantage over Partick Thistle when the teams meet in their play-off this week, with the quarter-final having taken a toll on the Glasgow side.

Thistle kept their promotion hopes alive by bouncing back from a first-leg defeat to defeat Ayr United 2-0 at Somerset Park to reach the semi-finals.

While Brian Graham and Mark Wilson’s side were coming through two tough games, Livingston were able to rest and plan for this week’s double header, and Martindale believes that will definitely be in his side’s favour.

“I’ll be really, really honest, I think there’s a lot been taken out of them over the last three games in terms of Friday, Tuesday, Friday,” he said.

“So we’ve got a wee bit of an advantage going into the game in terms of intensity and tempo.

“They’ve put a lot into their last few games.”

Thistle were the winners when they played Livingston on the last day of the regular season, with the other matches bringing two draws and a Livi win.

“We have just played one another, so this is the fifth game this season, the third time at Partick,” Martindale added.

“So I’m probably more focused on ourselves and our group and how we’re going to approach the game rather than focusing too much on the opposition.

“Anybody can come through the tie.

“We’ll probably going into the tie as favourites, but I don’t think any anyone would be surprised if Partick progressed to next round.

“It is going to be a really, really hard game, but it’s just about the next game, go and win the next game of football, and that’s Tuesday night.”

The SPFL’s Competitions Working Group is currently looking at tweaking the format of the Premiership play-offs, much to Martindale’s dismay. Despite having a tough task ahead to see off Thistle and then potentially take on the side who finished second-bottom of the Premiership, he’s a fan of the set-up.

“I think it’s one of the formats in Scottish football that’s not broken,” he said. So they probably are trying to find a different solution.

“This is the one that works for me.

“Second [in the Championship] against 11th [in the Premiership], I don’t think there’s a lot in it in terms of progression. Third and fourth, that’s a wee bit weighted.

“But the caveat for that is that you’ve had 36 games to finish second or first. So if you’re third or fourth, you need to deal with that.

“It’s definitely a format I feel works, so I hope they don’t change it.”

The format for this year is clear though, and the Livingston manager isn’t short on confidence his side can rise to the occasion.

“There’s a belief, a definite belief in the changing room,” he said. “We’ve definitely got the ability, we’ve got personality within the changing room.

“We’ve got an identity that we’ve stuck to most of the season. So there’s definitely a belief and desire.

“There’s a lot of belief in the group that they can go and do this, and I believe we can go and do this.”