Livingston boss concedes international break comes at perfect time for ailing defence

Livingston boss David Martindale admits the international break has come at the perfect time for his weakened defence.

Livi have started the campaign brightly, picking up five points from four games – with all of those contests coming against teams in last year’s top six.

However, he rued having a backline struggling for numbers as they were unable to make a defensive substitution in the final moments in last weekend’s draw with St Mirren. Three central defensive players are currently crocked, while Morgan Boyes left on loan to Inverness the previous day.

The Buddies struck in the sixth minute of injury-time to rescue a share of the spoils. Martindale, though, is hopeful that he’ll have three more centre-backs available for selection when they return to action with an away trip to Ross County on September 16.

Speaking to the West Lothian Courier, he said: “We’ve got six guys at the club who are either centre-backs or who can play there, and half of them are injured.

“I think out of Michael Nottingham, Tom Parkes and Sean Kelly, we’ll get two, if not all three, back in training next week which gives us really good numbers. If I had those boys sitting on the bench against St Mirren, there’s no doubt they’d have been on the park in the last five minutes trying to see the game out.

“It will be nice to get them back and the international break just allows that bit of extra time with no games for them.”

He added: “Going into the game, I knew we were a wee bit light in centre-backs. Inverness wanted Morgan and he wanted to go. Ideally I’d have kept him until the Monday but they already had another option lined up if it wasn’t going to happen and then Parkes pulled out at the last minute.”

Despite the transfer window having