Livingston FC is delighted to announce that club captain Marvin Bartley will take up the role of Reserve Team Manager, assisted by Efe Ambrose and Gary Maley.

Marv, Efe and Gary will take over the reins from Stevie Pittman and Derek McWilliams who departed the club back in June this year.

Having helped as a coach last season, Marv steps up to become manager is own right and said – “Obviously it’s a natural progression for me to go from coach to manager and I have to thank Davie (Martindale) and the club for trusting me in that position and it’s something I’m looking forward to.”

With Efe and Gary joining him, there’s plenty of experience to tap into – “Efe & Stretch are two massive characters but in all seriousness, they both bring their own high level of expertise. Stretch has been a goalkeeper for a long time and he’s now passing on that experience to the younger goalkeepers at the club and Efe has played at the absolute highest level so to have him involved is absolutely brilliant for us and the boys will love working with him.”

Having worked through various coaching badge levels, a career in that side of the game is something that Marv is planning towards – “From a selfish point of view, it’s definitely a great thing for me because it’s what I want to do when I retire so it’s brilliant to be able to learn on the job. As bad as it may sound, I’m going to make mistakes in management and even coaching so it’s a chance to learn from those at reserve level as opposed to the first-team.”

Head of Football Operations David Martindale said: “For me, when I spoke to Marv originally back in 2019, part of the excitement about joining Livingston was always to get Marv involved at some level of coaching at the club. He expressed that desire to do so when we first met.

“The pandemic has probably fast tracked the opportunity in all honesty as Stevie, Derek and Marv were working very well together with the reserves last season.

“Marv is a highly infectious character who is full of positivity and has the endeavour and desire to get into management. His footballing knowledge is fantastic and I’m honestly delighted that we as a club have been able to offer Marvin the opportunity.

“Stretch & Efe are more than capable and they will bring a variety of skills to assist Marv. Both fantastic individuals and professionals in their own right.

“All 3 of the guys are very different but collectively they will do fantastically well in my opinion.

“I’m delighted that we can call the trio our reserve management team – the lads at the reserves couldn’t be in any better hands.”

The reserve side are in action tomorrow evening as they take on former manager David Hopkin’s Greenock Morton side at Cappielow.

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