Martin O’Neill, Bill Struth and....David Martindale? The mind-boggling stat that puts Livingston manager's brilliant start in context

Former Celtic manager Martin O'Neill - one of only three managers with a better start than Livingston's David Martindale

Sometimes something on social media can really stop you in your tracks.

That was certainly the case on Wednesday night when, after Livingston’s last-gasp victory over Kilmarnock, the Twitter account @SPLstats posted that only three managers in the whole of Scottish football history had enjoyed a better start to their managerial reign at a league club than David Martindale.

And these were managers of the worth of Martin O’Neill, Bill Struth and Dave Shaw, at clubs of the standing of Celtic, Rangers and Aberdeen.

Martindale’s Livi take on Aberdeen this afternoon with the hope of making it 11 wins from his first 13 games (the other two matches were draws, against champions Celtic). He has already achieved the equivalent of altering the laws of physics by remaining unbeaten since picking up the manager of the month award for December.

Win or even draw today, having already reached a League Cup final, he’s a stick-on for January too.

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