Livingston 0 Celtic 3: Martindale at 'worst stage of his career' after Lions suffer 20th defeat of the season

David Martindale says he is 'at the worst stage of his career' after Livingston's loss to Celtic saw them taste defeat for the 20th time in 31 games.

The Lions failed to threaten Hoops No.1 Joe Hart all afternoon at the Tony Macaroni Arena and a three-gol blitz in the second half from Celtic earned the visitors the Easter Sunday spoils.

It keeps rock-bottom Lions 10 points adrift of Ross County at the foot of the table with just seven games remaining.

The Hoops struggled to break down the stuffy Lions in the first half.

But an own goal early in the second period from Jamie Brandon broke the hosts’ resistance and further goals from substitute Paulo Bernardo and Matt O’Riley helped Celtic move back to the top of the Premiership, a point above Rangers who have a game in hand.

Boss Martindale told the BBC: "I think we could have posed a wee bit more of an attacking threat in the first half, but in terms of chances created by Celtic, we limited them to very little.

"I made a couple of slight adjustments, nothing major. [The opening goal] comes down to an individual error. It bounces off Jamie Brandon and you find yourself 1-0 down.

"The game becomes a little bit stretched and they pick us off. I think Shamal [George] will be disappointed with the third goal. The first goal changes everything, the game becomes so much harder for us.

"It's been must-win since matchday one. We need points every game. There's two scenarios here - we're going to get relegated or we've got a possibility of staying up. Either way, my mindset doesn't change. I'm still going out to win games.

"I could not say one player's not trying. They wouldn't be in my changing room [if they weren't]. This is the worst stage of my career being involved at