DAVID MARTINDALE says that the strength of Celtic’s substitutes bench highlights just how much his team were up against it in their 3-0 loss to the champions, but the Livingston manager was still frustrated at the manner of the goals his men conceded at the Tony Macaroni Arena.
Martindale had a wry chuckle to himself as Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou brought on the likes of Giorgos Giakoumakis, David Turnbull and Jota in the second half of the contest, while he didn’t have enough fit bodies to fill the seven spaces on his bench.
But even though the financial disparity between the clubs was starkly laid bare, he still believes his team should have done better in their defending, and that stand-in goalkeeper Jack Hamilton should have saved at least one – and maybe two - of Celtic’s goals.
“I turned round to Marv (Bartley) and said: ‘look at their substitutions. It’s not bad’.
“I had a very strong 14, Esma (Goncalves) was on the bench but he could only have done five minutes for me. He probably shouldn’t have been on the bench. I had another goalie then four fit players that I could change the game with.
“But I still think we were very competitive with the XI we put out. We had eight missing but I don’t think that had anything to do with the game today. But when you look at Celtic’s bench and the players they can bring on, I was a bit envious, I’m not going to lie.
“Financially they are miles ahead of us. But I felt we limited them to few chances. I don’t think they cut us open.
“I’ve come up against Celtic and Rangers before when it’s been backs to the wall, save after save, post, bar, corner kicks. That didn’t happen today.
“The disappointing aspect was the goals we lose. If you look at their shots on target, 50 per cent of them went in. I genuinely don’t think the ratio should have been that high because they were not great goalscoring opportunities.
“(Greg) Taylor’s 25 yards from goal, Kyogo’s 14 yards on the diagonal, so I don’t think they had great chances but they managed to score three goals.
“From a coaching point of view that’s disappointing.”
In better news for Martindale, regular number one Shamal George should be back in action soon.
“Hopefully he is back on Friday,” he said. “We missed him today.
“I kind of threw big Jack into it today. I think he should have done a bit better at a couple of the goals but to be fair to the big man he’s not played for six months.
“He’s only played reserve games. I threw him into the mix. Did it work? Probably not.
“He needs to get his eye in and keep fighting for the jersey.”
