Livingston boss David Martindale says "I've never walked away from a fight, I won't start now" as rock-bottom Lions prepare for Celtic visit

Livingston boss David Martindale says he has never walked away from a fight in his life – and isn’t about to start now.

The West Lothian club are rock-bottom of the Premiership table, 10 points behind Ross County in the play-off slot, due to their 3-0 defeat to Hibs at Easter Road, while their rivals beat Hearts 2-1 in the Highlands.

With three games left before the split, starting at home to Celtic on Sunday, March 31, Martindale knows it’s a tall order, but says everybody will roll up their sleeves and get stuck in.

Martindale said: “I’ve never walked away from a fight in my life, I don’t intend to walk away from this one.

“I’ll keep fighting, whether that’s matchday 38, whatever it’s going to be, matchday 31... the staff and the players at the club will keep going and keep trying to win games of football for the club.

“It has been a painful season, it’s been a disappointing season, and it has been frustrating, but we all understand our jobs – we need to go out and try to win the next game.”

Results didn’t go for Livi last weekend, and Martindale said: “I don’t think we deserved anything from the game. I thought Hibs started the game far better than us, we shot ourselves in the foot, were 3-0 down with 20 minutes on the clock, roughly, and you’re not going to win games in the Premiership, having starts like that.

“The frustrating element comes from such a great performance against Celtic at Parkhead to a disappointing start in the following game – but that’s probably the inconsistency that has led us to where we are at this point in time.

“Ross County winning is a blow, but all we’ve been concentrating on is ourselves.

“It’s not ideal, by any stretch of the imagination, but we’re just trying to focus on what we can