Celtic v Livingston: Scottish Cup tie a "distraction" from league survival bid

The Scottish Cup quarter-finals might be a welcome distraction for Livingston fans amid a difficult league campaign but David Martindale is impatient to get out of relegation trouble.

Livi gave themselves a glimmer of hope recently with a third win of the cinch Premiership season against St Mirren.

But conceding late goals to Ross County and St Johnstone and losing a lead against Motherwell have left them six points adrift.

The players may be happy to enjoy a trip to Celtic Park thius afternoon without the pressure of playing catch-up in the survival battle.

But Martindale, whose side lost 2-0 at Celtic Park in the league in December, said: "It's not how I see it, to be fair; I would rather be right into league action.

"It's a quarter-final of the Scottish Cup but for me I want to get right into league action, I want to change the circumstances we are in.

"I don't want to be sitting here talking about being six points behind, I want to be sitting here after the next game talking about being three points behind.

"For me, it's a distraction, that's what it is, but if I had the choice of playing in the Scottish Cup this week or a league game this week, I'd be favouring a league game because I want to get playing these games."

Martindale concedes that pulling off a cup shock could indirectly help Livi's league campaign.

"As a club, at this point in time, we have got to two quarter-finals of the domestic cup competitions," he said. "I think that's a feather in the cap for everybody at the club.

"The down side of that is we got the Old Firm away on both occasions.

"But if we can manage to take something from the game on Sunday, it would be a huge leap in positivity within the building and bring a lot of new energy into the