David Martindale believes Celtic will inflict more heavy defeats this season

Livingston manager David Martindale expects Celtic to subject other teams to the kind of thrashing witnessed at Tannadice on Sunday.

Celtic posted their record away win and consigned Dundee United to the heaviest home defeat in their history as the cinch Premiership champions ran out 9-0 winners.

Martindale’s side host United in the Premier Sports Cup second round on Wednesday and he was keen to highlight the strengths of Ange Postecoglou’s team rather than look too much into his next opponents’ problems.

“That will not be the last time Celtic do that to teams,” Martindale said.

“Dundee United will be coming here with a point to prove and that will make our job even more difficult.

“I know some of their players, I know the coaching staff and there is no way on earth they are going to take that lying down. It’s going to make our job very, very difficult.

“If I’m honest, I’d rather Dundee United were coming here with a wee bit of complacency, which will definitely not be the case.

“But I don’t think Dundee United will be the last team that Celtic do something very, very similar to this season.

“I think they are deploying tactics that some teams have maybe not picked up on as yet but there is no doubt Ange has massively transformed the way Celtic play. Their recruitment has been very, very good, Ange has proven to be a very shrewd signing and they are a top, top team.

“I’m really looking forward to Celtic-Real Madrid, Rangers-Liverpool, watching our top teams play against Europe’s top teams. I’m really, really excited about that and really looking forward to seeing how Ange does against Real Madrid. I think he will have a go.

“Massive credit to Celtic and Ange and if I was Dundee United, I wouldn’t read too much into it