David Martindale was at Celtic Park on Tuesday night, describing himself as a Celtic supporter for the night, and he certainly was mighily impressed by the quality of football on display by both sides at the elite level of club football.
The Livingston manager is scheduled to bring his team to Parkhead tomorrow afternoon for the cinch Premiership match, but that game is now in doubt as the football authorities cosnsider postponements following the death of the Queen yesterday afternoon at her Scottish retreat at Balmoral. We’ll find out today whether the postponements will cover the next two weekends or will be resticted to next weekend which is likely to coincide with the state funeral.
Celtic’s European matches in this period are away from home in Warsaw and Leipzig so are likely to be unaffected.
🗣 ‘It’s thought provoking looking for ways to try and stop them’
David Martindale says taking on Celtic makes him ‘dig a little bit deeper’
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David Martindale spoke about tomorrow’s game, before the news broke of the Queen’s passing, so at that stage there were no doubts concerning tomorrow’s match taking place. And the Livingston boss reckons that despite the 3-0 scoreline on Tuesday night, Celtic will come in to the game tomorrow (if it goes ahead) in bhoyant mood.
“If anything they will go out on Saturday with a spring in their step. If I was a Celtic player going to bed on Tuesday night, I would be like, ‘that was incredible’,” Martindale said, as reported by Daily Record. “I would be waking up with a smile on my face knowing we just went toe to toe with some of the best players in the world.
“You all want to come out on the right side of a result, it’s not always possible and for me the performance is the big thing. For me Celtic’s performance was more than justified that everyone of them could come off the park with their head held high.
“I think they had Real Madrid rattled at stages in the first half but I had it in the back of my head that Real would find a way to win the game and they did. They have some of the best players in the world and there is a difference.
“I loved the game. I was a Celtic fan on Tuesday, I was a Rangers (sic) fan on Wednesday and a Hearts fan last night. I was desperate for Celtic to do well. I can’t remember as a football fan I actually woke up buzzing for a game of football,” Martindale added.
Many of the current crop of Livingston players will never have experienced anything like a stadium like Celtic Park with 60,000 there backing their team, as many hae come up from the lowere leagues of English football over the summer as Martindale juggled his tiny budget to build a team capable of maintaining his club’s Scottish Premierhsip status.
“I look forward to seeing their reaction because it’s probably a selling point when you come to Scotland. It’s nice to see my players’ reactions when they go to these fantastic stadiums. I think the Celtic fans will be in good voice on Saturday and they will be buzzing after Tuesday night.
“They should take energy from it because it’s a fantastic place to play football. Whatever happens on Saturday, I will be looking at it from a performance point of view, not a results point of view.”
We’ll report on the decision regarding tomorrow’s game as soon as we can.
