Livingston cup hero Scott Robinson urges SFA to approve David Martindale as boss admits: 'I don’t expect results to help in fit and proper quest'

David Martindale does not believe the feat of leading Livingston into the final of the Betfred Cup will enhance his chances of being approved by the SFA.

David Martindale celebrates with Livingston skipper Marvin Bartley after leading his side into final of the Betfred Cup with a 1-0 win over St Mirren (Photo by Craig Foy / SNS Group)

The Livingston manager’s dream start to his still-to-be-ratified managerial career continued with a 1-0 win over St Mirren at Hampden Park.

Martindale now faces a fit-and-proper person test to see whether he is considered sufficiently rehabilitated following a six-year sentence for drugs offences in 2006.

Since taking over from Gary Holt in November, he has led Livingston to nine wins and two draws. This latest victory, secured with a header after ten minutes from Scott Robinson, earned Livingston a cup final showdown against St Johnstone next month. It remains uncertain, however, whether Martindale will be able to take his place in the dug-out. He faces a three-person SFA hearing conducted via Zoom at 10.30am on Tuesday.

“To be honest, I do not think anything I have done externally is going to help it,” he said. “It is down to the government body, I don’t think they will take results into the equation if I am being honest.

“I hope they do! Surely it will mean I will get passed. But I can’t see it affecting the decision.”

Martindale said the five minutes of injury-time at Hampden felt like the longest of his life – adding, “and I have been in some sticky situations!”

He said: “It was horrible. At Livingston you’ve not got the big screen with the minutes and I actually think that helps you and sometimes it helps the players, whereas here I kept looking up at the screen and it’s saying 88 minutes. Then I’m sure I looked back up and it said 86 minutes! As soon as you see the 90 minute mark I kept asking the fourth official ‘how long, how long, how long’. So it was a long five minutes at the end.”

Despite his remarkable record of nine wins and two draws since taking over from Holt in November, Martindale insisted the credit must go to the Livingston players. As well as having a cup final to look forward to, the side are currently fifth in the league.

“The boys make managers, players make managers,” he said. “They make my job fairly easy, they make press conferences fairly easy to be honest.

“It is all positive. It means the world to us. I am delighted for the boys in the changing room, there’s a lot of boys who have not been to cup finals. Obviously we have Efe (Ambrose) and Marvin Bartley who have tasted success previously, but we are a fairly young team and I am just made up for them.”

Goalscorer Robinson urged the authorities to give Martindale the green light to continue. “I will say just give him the job,” the former Hearts player said. “There’s no two ways about it, he deserves it. No matter what’s gone in his life, he deserves it - he’s a football man now.

“This is his life. So he more than deserves it for where he’s taken this club, what he’s done for me. For anyone to take that away from him would be very, very, very harsh.”

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