Martindale hopeful Livingston can extend record against Celtic

Livingston manager David Martindale says he’ll look to use every advantage he can find to get a result against Celtic on Sunday – and extend a proud record in the process.

Celtic haven’t won at the Tony Macaroni Arena since Livingston were promoted to the top flight in 2018, and Martindale is hoping that Ange Postecoglou suffers the same frustration as his predecessors when the teams meet on Sunday.

The Livi boss says he knows the artificial pitch at the stadium isn’t popular with visiting players and hopes that continues.

“I think you’ve had Brendan Rodgers and Neil Lennon here [who failed to win],” he said. “It’s a nice stat to have.

“Let’s be honest, the calibre of player that Celtic can afford to put on the field, I don’t think they like playing on the plastic surface.”

Celtic are much changed under new boss Postecoglou, with a raft of new players in the side. Martindale has been impressed with the attacking intent of the side but will take on the challenge of trying to outwit the Australian.

He said: “I think you can see Ange has put his blueprint to the team and you can see his style of football.

“They’re a very entertaining football team and very good coming forward. I don’t expect anything less going into our game.

“It’s always tough no matter who you’re playing with the Old Firm and no matter who the manager is. You’ve got to try and find a way to win that game of football and coming up against Ange and a new Celtic team is not any different.”

Celtic go into the game after suffering a 4-3 defeat to Real Betis in the Europa League on Thursday and Martindale believes it’s another factor that could be in his side’s favour as they look to upset the odds once again.

“Within these four walls we’re expecting to go and try and pick points up on Sunday,” he said. “I’ve got to go and try to use every advantage I’ve got.

“The park is obviously horrific, which helps us.

“They’ve played a hard European game and from my point of view the game went very well in our favour because it was a really difficult game for Celtic. Albeit I thought they were very, very good in moments in the game.

“But the way the game went you could see they were putting everything into it and there was a lot of energy. So I don’t know if they travelled back late Thursday night or today but all these factors can help us going into Sunday’s fixture.”