'That really, really helped Rangers': David Martindale reveals why Livingston lost out at Ibrox and makes 'battered in games' comment

David Martindale believes Rangers’ substitutions were the key to overcoming his Livingston team at Ibrox.

Livingston manager David Martindale believes his team were competitive at Ibrox against Rangers.

The Lions went down 4-0 in Govan, with three of Rangers’ strikes coming in the final 12 minutes. Martindale is of the opinion that the Lions were in the game for long spells despite an early opener from Sam Lammers, with the home crowd on edge until late strikes from Danilo, Abdallah Sima and Kieran Dowell put the game to bed.

"From 0-78 minutes I thought it was a decent game of football,” said Martindale. “We managed to nullify a lot of the threats that Rangers posed, so I was fairly happy. Listen, we can do better at the first goal, but I genuinely thought we could get a goal at 1-0. I was just about to make a couple of changes before the second goal went in, but we allowed a cross to come in from Barisic which we knew they were going to go and we didn't defend the back stick well enough.

"I think Rangers get huge energy, confidence and momentum from the crowd because up until that point, the game could have swung – they looked like they could score again and we looked like we could get one back. I'm frustrated, but also proud of the players up to a certain level, and also disappointed for them. I could see how much they put into it. I thought Rangers' substitutions really helped them. They brought a lot of pace and power onto the park. That really, really helped Rangers with the way they were playing. Rangers started knocking it about with combinations.

"Goals change games. Believe it or not, I was sitting there thinking that Shamal George had a good game but he's picked the ball out of the net four times. As staff, I think this has been my tenth year at Livingston and we've played Rangers eight of those years. I've been battered in games, I've lost them 1-0, I've lost them 2-0, and then I come here and I think this is my heaviest defeat at Ibrox and I genuinely think we've been in the game for 78 minutes."