Gough exit ends latest debacle in Lions saga

IT WAS the aftermath of Livingston’s 4-1 mauling by Inverness at Almondvale on January 22 and the home players were exiting the stadium to head home. Several began sending text messages to close friends within the game, some of which read: "Get me out of here now" and "I can’t take any more of this".

The turbulence which was to characterise much of Richard Gough’s reign was in full swing.

Whether the manager’s tenure ends with a depressing submersion into the First Division or the relative gaiety of securing SPL status will be ordained by Livingston’s meeting with Dundee on Saturday. Regardless of either outcome, Gough will afterwards return to his adopted home in San Diego to reunite himself with sons Jamie and Andrew, both still of primary-school age and desperately missing their father.

Having appeared to lose the confidence of the Almondvale dressing-room shortly after being appointed in November 2004 as players struggled to buy into the footballing philosophy he imparted along with assistant Archie Knox, Gough deserves credit for sufficiently reinvigorating his staff and dragging Livingston to within a point of safety after being six adrift at the bottom as recently as February.

Some of his signings, like Hassan Kachloul and Gabor Vincze, have proved to be inspired. Others, like Jamie Hand and Attila Kriston, have been nothing other than insipid. Behind the scenes, Gough and Knox failed to curry favour with many at Almondvale, with one non-playing member of staff apparently not appreciating being told to "**** off" during a discussion with Knox.

Some club sources have bemoaned an at-times confrontational style of management, and certainly claims of Gough removing his club tie and challenging his striker Derek Lilley to a stand-up fight in the dressing-room after the slenderest of Scottish Cup victories at Alloa in February would not have done much for team morale. Recent results, though, are evidence that Gough proceeded to adjust to the demands of SPL management after several attempts to secure a job in Scotland’s top flight.

He was quick to tell anyone who would listen that, in three years since retiring as a player in 2001,he only ever applied for one managerial vacancy, the one at Inverness last November. Not quite true. One of the first CVs to land on the mat behind the Almondvale front door after Marcio Maximo’s resignation as head coach in October 2003 belonged to Gough.

So it took him over a year but he eventually landed the job he desired. That he will now willingly hand it to Paul Lambert, pictured, leaves Livingston exposed to accusations of becoming the Scottish version of Southampton in appointing their fourth manager inside a year, Davie Hay, Allan Preston and now Gough making up the previous incumbents.

Suspicions persist that the manager simply didn’t enjoy certain aspects of his job, as do allegations that he is barely on speaking terms with Livingston owner Pearse Flynn and that he stormed out of meetings with chief executive Vivien Kyles. "My head’s bursting with all the bureaucracy involved," Gough admitted a few weeks after replacing Preston. By contrast, constructing sand castles with the kids on San Diego’s Pacific Beach is unlikely to prompt a reach for the painkillers.

Gough is to be commended for putting his family first in this instance even if he displayed no hesitation in returning to Scotland when first informed of the chance to manage Livingston. Indeed, were it up to him he would be in California right now. Girlfriend Maria is unsettled in the home she shares with Gough in the west end of Glasgow, and both expected to be heading almost instantly for the airport last week after the 43-year-old handed in his resignation, but Flynn’s powers of persuasion convinced Gough to remain in West Lothian until the relegation issue is resolved. After that it is over to Lambert, who will take the considerable jump from coaching Celtic’s under-15s to scouring the UK and possibly Europe for new signings for Livingston.

He will doubtless be aware of the ruthless streak possessed by Flynn, one which led tantalisingly close to the sacking of Gough after a mere two months in the job in January when results, and the manager’s comments, were not what the Irishman expected.

Yet, for all Flynn’s hiring and firing, one question remains. He dispensed with Hay because he felt Preston was the driving force at Livingston. Then he sacked Preston and replaced him with Gough, who took charge on November 30 with Livingston bottom of the SPL on goal difference from Dundee United. As we approach the final day the club sit two points from the bottom and not yet safe from relegation, but realistically would Livingston’s current position be significantly different had Preston kept his job? The likelihood is no, with the added bonus that a whole lot of money and grief would have been spared.