Manager will continue at West Lothian outfit in bid to return to top flight

Livingston manager David Martindale will remain in charge of the club next season, the West Lothian outfit has announced.

The Lions finished bottom of the Premiership this season, ending a six-year stay in the top flight of Scottish football. Martindale has been in charge of first-team affairs since 2020, but the 49-year-old himself admitted that his future was up in the air, chiefly due to an wrangle over the club’s ownership. However, in a statement released by Livingston’s directors, it was confirmed that Martindale – who was heavily linked with the St Johnstone job last season – will spearhead the attempt to win promotion from the Championship.

"We can today confirm that men’s first-team manager David Martindale will continue at the helm for our 2024/25 Championship campaign,” a statement attributed to Livingston directors John McIlvogue, John Ward and Dave Black read. “There is no getting away from the fact that this season has been disappointing. Every single member of staff inside the building is hurting with how the year transpired and we know full well that the same disappointment and upset is shared amongst our supporters. However, we now have an opportunity to regroup, both on the park and in the stands, but we can only do with everyone pulling in the same direction.

David Martindale will remain in charge of Livingston next season.

“David has been involved with the coaching set-up here for almost ten years now. His involvement in the dugout has seen us lift a League One title, win the Premiership play-offs, two top-6 finishes, two seasons just missing out on the top 6 on the final game before the split, a national cup final appearance and a club record 6 consecutive seasons in the top flight. For a club of our size and stature, that is an incredible return – and a list of achievements that David deserves huge credit for.

“As your board, we believe that David has earned the right to remain as first-team manager and have the opportunity to try to steer us back to the Premiership. His commitment and dedication to the club over the years is unrivalled and whilst that alone can’t be the sole driver behind remaining in charge, his qualities as a manager, as a coach and as a leader give us full confidence that David is the man we want in charge of this football club going forward. We are acutely aware of the budget constraints that David was working under this season. Losses in the previous two years meant that we had to convince club auditors that we could remain viable in the 2023/24 season and the only way to do that was to reduce the clubs budget across all departments.

“Such is the nature of football that everyone has an opinion and some people will have a differing opinion to ours. However, with this decision now made and the hard work continuing off the field, we need our supporters to put this season to bed, understand that as a club it’s been an undoubted disappointment to drop a division, but now start to look to the season ahead and the new challenge we face. We believe we have the core of a very good squad and with the addition of further targets that the manager has identified, we will give ourself a real good chance of being right in the mix come the end of next season.

“We’re excited at the challenge we face. With that, we’ll have a different pressure on all of us next season but there’s a real, positive energy within the club that we can take this year of adversity and use that to channel a successful promotion push. Having that same, positive energy in the stands from the fanbase can make such a vital difference on match day. We need to get back to that united feeling of “us against the world” which was what got us into the Premiership in the first place.

Rhys McCabe has extended his contract at Airdrieonians.

Off the field, we have a terrific group of staff who now have multiple years of experience running a Premiership club. We will take that Premiership professionalism into the Championship and look to keep those standards to support the teams return to the top flight. We ask you all to join us in giving your full backing to the manager, his coaching staff and the players as we look to get back to winning ways, have a successful season on and off the pitch and return the club back to the top flight at the first attempt.”

Fellow Championship outfit Airdrieonians also revealed on Monday that they have extended the contract of their manager Rhys McCabe. The 33-year-old led the Diamonds to fourth in the league and the play-offs before being ousted by Partick Thistle. The Lanarkshire club also won the SPFL Trust Trophy in a successful 2023/24 campaign.

"We are pleased to announce that Rhys McCabe has extended his contract with the club and will lead the Diamonds for a third season,” a statement from Airdrieonians read. “The player-manager celebrated two years in post yesterday, and we are delighted that he has chosen to continue his spell in the Excelsior hot-seat having enjoyed a series of successes in the role.“Continually lauded in the press as Scotland’s hottest young managerial talent, Rhys’s brand of football has gathered many admirers - and the results on the pitch have backed this up. With an impressive 48% win rate from his 97 competitive matches in charge, Rhys led the club to promotion in his first season in charge, beating Hamilton Academical in a memorable play-off final to reach the Championship for the first time in a decade.”

Livingston clarify David Martindale's future at club following relegation as Airdrieonians make big statement on Rhys McCabe

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