Dougie Imrie has worked wonders at Morton, but I want to beat him, says Livi boss

Livingston boss David Martindale says the old pals’ act goes out the window when Dougie Imrie’s Morton visit in the Championship on Saturday.

Martindale is well acquainted with Imrie, who was appointed first-team coach and head of academy at Livingston in May 2021, only to take the reins at the Greenock club exactly seven months later.

While Martindale has a lot of time for what Imrie has done at Morton, it won’t stop him from trying to take three points from him on Saturday.

He said: “I think Dougie has done a great job there. Dougie’s team took on Dougie’s personality, he’s a competitor, he’s got a will to win, he was a good player, so I think Morton have been a wee bit under-estimated by teams.

“They work extremely hard on and off the ball, they’ve got a competitive desire, passion to go and win games of football, but they can also play, and I think that’s where everybody gets confused – I think they’re a good football team.

“Dougie has been a wee bit unlucky over the last couple of years not to make the top-four, so it’s going to be a difficult game.

“But I know what we can give, and more so this season than any other one, we’re focusing on ourselves.

“We’ve got to be aware of the threats that Morton will bring, but with the group of players we’ve got, we focus on what we can do in the game, more so than the opponent, whereas in the Premiership a lot of the focus goes on the opposition.”

Martindale reiterated that he is still looking to offload some players from his squad, but that is unlikely to result in a fresh face coming in.

“We probably still need to move two or three on, but they seem to be reluctant to go,” said Martindale.

“I’m kind of done on the recruitment side of things. We’ve probably recruited in