Livingston boss believes defender's return can help spark change in fortunes

Livingston boss David Martindale says the return from injury of centre-back Ayo Obileye could be the boost the Lions need in order to put an end to their poor form.

The 28-year-old trained today and will be in the squad for the visit of the Staggies and the gaffer confessed he'd been a huge miss.

Livi have lost all six games in which the former Queen of the South man has spent sidelined, while an injury at the tail end of last season also coincided with a poor run of form that saw the club slip out of the top six having been firmly in a European race until early March.

Martindale said: "Ayo is okay. He was going to train today, I spoke to him on Wednesday and he said I feel alright but I feel I would benefit from another two days and then I can jump in on Friday and I said that I didn’t have a problem with that.

"I think he’s doing it for the right reasons and he’s so close. He’ll be in the match day squad on Saturday, whether he’s in the starting eleven or not remains to be seen."

He added: "Testament to Ayo, I think we’ve missed him. I’m not saying the players there aren’t capable but there is a drop off in terms of what he is giving you on the park.

"You can see that with Ayo, we were really robust when we had Mick (Devlin) and Ayo as a two out of the three. Then we lost Mick to injury, got him back and we lost Ayo."

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