Livingston boss David Martindale admits his side’s failure to reach the top six will lead to budget cuts at the club.
But he’s challenged the Lions to end the season in style by reaching the 50-point mark in a Premiership season for just the second time in the club’s history.
They would need to pick up eight points from their final five games in order to achieve that figure – which would be an increase on last season’s tally.
The Tony Macaroni Arena outfit missed out on a top six place following a 2-0 loss to Dundee United at the weekend with Martindale admitting it will impact his budget and could have a negative effect on next season.
Despite that, however, he insists it’s been a successful campaign for the Lions.
Speaking to the Courier, he said: “Not getting top six feels like a bit of kick in the teeth because I know it’s a huge missed opportunity and what it would have meant to the club and to the fans.
“I think it makes next season more difficult because my budget’s going to have to be cut. That’s something that’s going to have to happen.
“Ultimately we weren’t good enough but when I look back at the season there’s been a few games where we should have done better or things have gone against us.
“We lost a late equaliser away to Hearts having also missed a penalty. We lost against 10-men St Mirren. We lost to Motherwell at the start of the season to a penalty that wouldn’t have been given if VAR was in place.
“There’s lots of moments you can look back on but the fact is there’s been six teams better than us.”
He added: “In saying all of that, we’ve picked up four more points than last season and we’re not in a relegation fight so you have to sit back and look at it objectively – it’s still been a successful season.”
Martindale admitted he’ll use the next five games to set things in place for next season but is determined to still pick up as many points as possible.
He said: “It will be a chance to reset slightly. From the starting line-up on Saturday, I know two players won’t be here – Nicky Devlin and Jack Fitzwater. I’m talking to Andrew Shinnie about a new contract just now.
“We’re losing a lot of experience there but these games allow me to start doing things and putting things in place for how I want us to play next season - but that won’t be to the detriment of the team. We still want to go and win games.
“When we spoke as a group at the start of the season, we asked what success would be and that’s finishing higher and getting more points than the year before.
“We’ve still got a chance to get to 50 points, which would be great.”
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