12-in-a-row as Martindale run continues
Late goals from Jaze Kabia and Scott Pittman sealed a fine 2-0 win over Kilmarnock at the Tony Macaroni Arena last night, making it 12 games without defeat for the club – and continued the undefeated start for manager David Martindale.
The run of 12 games now includes 10 victories and 2 draws – both against current Scottish Premiership champions, Celtic.
Not only that but within the same run of 12 games, the Lions have notched up 8 clean sheet, only conceding 5 goals.
Down the other end and the Lions have found the net 25 times in this run, averaging just over 2 goals per game since Martindale took the reins.
Twitter account @SPLstats also shared a table (below) after the win over Kilmarnock, showing that only three managers in the entire history of Scottish football have had a better start to their career at a league club than Martindale.
Table shows the best records over the first 12 matches in national & international competitions.
Those 3 managers? Martin O’Neill, Bill Struth and Dave Shaw – not bad company at all.
David said: “I couldn’t have dreamt of a run like this when I took over for that first game at home to Ayr United back in November. For a club like ours to be battling in the top flight, with 10 wins and 2 draws over 12 games is brilliant, and real testament to every single player and member of staff.
“I’ve said it a number of times now but I’m just a small cog in a big wheel. The work, effort and commitment from everyone within the club all amounts to being able to continue to move forward and we just keep taking each game as it comes.
“It’s incredible and a very decent stat but that’s all it is. I’m a million miles away from the guys that are mentioned on that table but I will do my very best every day to keep winning games of football which will, in turn, give us the opportunities to break records held by previous squads at Livingston FC.”
December’s Scottish Premiership Manager of the Month goes into the final game of January at the weekend, where anything other than a defeat would be sure to put him in contention for the January gong too.
On the December award, David opted to give the award away via a raffle to help raise funds for local mental health group, “Kick Mental Health”. So far, over £1,500 has been raised with pledges in place which could take that total to in excess of £3,000 – a quite remarkable effort.
