Livingston's butcher chairman hoping to slaughter Hearts once more

Robert Wilson is as straightforward as his team are often portrayed as being. 'I have two passions,' he says, over coffee yesterday morning (we settle on a pub, having bypassed the local vegan café). 'Livestock and football.'

Livingston chairman Robert Wilson, whose side face Hearts in the Scottish Cup, at his butchers shop in Edinburgh. Picture: Neil Hanna

These two interests combined in spectacular style on Friday 14 December: Livingston 5 Hearts 0. The visitors fell like lambs to the slaughter at the hands of the supposedly agricultural West Lothian side. Wilson made sure he was in at work bright and early the following morning. As well as being chairman of Livingston and the second biggest feeder of sheep in Scotland, the 63-year-old owns Mathieson, the renowned butcher’s shop in Edinburgh’s southside.

Getting up has never been a problem for someone who’s been involved with animals all his working life. But that particular morning after Livingston shocked Scottish football he threw back the covers with extra gusto.

“I was in at 8am the next morning,” he says. “Stony silence. The staff is three Hearts fans, one Hibs fan. I never elaborated, until the Hibs fan came in and said: how good were you last night! The Hearts staff were in complete silence. Eventually I started ribbing them.”

Wilson and his employees, one of whom, a Hearts supporter, has been serving customers in the shop since Drew Busby was leading the line at Tynecastle, are preparing for one of the busiest weeks of the year in the run-up to Burns night.

But first comes tomorrow’s re-match between Hearts and Livingston in the Scottish Cup and before that there’s a trip to Nottingham Forest’s City Ground, where Wilson’s football education took place. He and thousands of others will welcome new manager Martin O’Neill back to the club against Bristol City this afternoon.

Despite being brought up in Berwickshire and moving to Edinburgh in 1972, he developed a love affair with Brian Clough’s side. He travelled to every home game for a spell, attended both European Cup finals in 1979 and 1980 and, far less happily, was present at Hillsborough for 1989’s FA Cup semi-final with Liverpool that was abandoned minutes in.

He has the routine down pat: “8am train, Nottingham for 12.30, couple of pints, game. I have been going there since the mid-70s. I know a lot of people. Train at half past five back. Change at either Doncaster or Sheffield.”

Clearly Wilson’s Livingston duties means Nottingham Forest must take a back seat unless helpful fixture-scheduling throws up the chance to attend both games, as has happened this weekend. In the late 1970s and 1980s, when he wasn’t watching Forest, he would often be at Meadowbank Thistle (he also had a later spell as chairman of Berwick Rangers).

Even the second tier of English football is ripe for global investment and is now too rich for a butcher to get involved. Scottish football, mercifully, is still within the means of a local businessman.

He’ll be back in good time to take his seat at club sponsors Tony Macaroni’s restaurant in Edinburgh for a pre-match meal as Livingston aim to keep Hearts out for the third game in succession. A 0-0 draw at Tynecastle in September was when Wilson began to think Livingston could really pull off the once unthinkable and survive their maiden season back in the top flight. Now, of course, his ambitions are higher. They currently lie seventh.

He sees little difference between the two worlds he inhabits. It’s about buying and selling livestock: either four-legged or two. He also rents players – like the fields in which up to 20,000 sheep he feeds roam. There was a spring in Wilson’s step yesterday: Ryan Hardie, who scored twice against Hearts last time around, has just returned on loan from Rangers.

“In the livestock business, there are good and bad times,” he says. “It’s the same in football. Just don’t get carried away.”

Recruitment is important and Wilson believes they are getting it right more often than not at Livi. Kenny Miller did not last long as player-manager after his appointment in the summer.

“He just wasn’t a proper fit for the football club – you could see it from fairly near the start,” he says. “We moved on. Gary Holt had applied for the job prior to Kenny getting it. He has done remarkably well. Hard working, honest.”

The club believes in second chances. David Martindale is an influential coach but once served a six-and-a-half-year sentence for a drugs offence. “All the players love him,” 
Wilson says.

“We do run a tight ship,” he adds. “Our wage structure will be the lowest in the Premier League. Without a doubt. Crowds are small. We have to live within our means. We cannot go back to another administration episode.

“Last year, it was continuous. Can someone pay the wages? Can someone pay 20 or 30 grand to cover it this month? I was doing it. Or one of the other owners was [there are four in total, including Wilson]. But this time the money is there.”

Livingston’s surprise promotion to the comparative riches of the top flight means there’s no pressure on them to sell in this window, with players such as skipper Craig Halkett and Shaun Byrne attracting interest from elsewhere. “Hopefully there are no big sales in January – other than haggis sales, that is,” says Wilson.