Livingston boss confirms failure to reach top six won't impact budget

Livingston boss David Martindale has confirmed that next season’s budget won’t be impacted by their failure to reach the top six.

The Lions were edged out of a top half finish when they conceded an injury-time equaliser to Motherwell on Saturday after being two goals in front.

Ricki Lamie’s strike saw Livi fall to eighth place and they get their post-split fixtures underway on April 23 with a trip to Aberdeen.

That’s then followed by home clashes with Hibs and St Johnstone on April 30 and May 7 before a Wednesday night trip to Paisley to face St Mirren (May 11).

The season ends four days later at home to Dundee.

Speaking to the Courier, Martindale commented: “The playing budget doesn’t change regardless of whether we’re in the top six or bottom six or wherever we finish.

“Ironically, the two seasons we were in the top six we didn’t really see the benefits of it and then this year we miss out with a last minute goal.

“The first year, the season got called early and we lost out on £250,000 of the prize money then last season there were no crowds so you don’t get the gates of having those bigger clubs after the split.

“We’ve got a budget that we work within and that doesn’t change so I wouldn’t have seen any more money if we had grabbed that top six place.”

The gaffer admitted that Saturday’s crushing late goal left him ‘disappointed’ but said there were multiple points throughout the campaign that could have seen them wrap up a top half finish prior to the weekend.

He said: “I was disappointed after Saturday but the reality is there were 33 games played and there’s countless of moments you can point to that if they had gone the other way then we’d have been in the top six.

“I actually think we’ve played a lot of good