Livingston manager David Martindale believes the inability of most teams in the cinch Premiership to string together a sustained run of victories this season is testament to “a really competitive environment”.
Beyond the top two of Celtic and Rangers, no side has managed to win more than half of their league matches across the first three months of the campaign so far.
Motherwell – who won three in a row before losing their last four – are the only team apart from the traditional big two to have managed more than two league victories in succession.
Martindale, whose side sit seventh in the table despite winning only two games, feels the closely contested nature of the league is a sign of its collective strength.
“There are two ways to look at it,” said the Livi boss. “We could look at it and say, ‘teams are struggling’, but I think it’s testament to the teams that are in the league.
“It’s more competitive so it’s more difficult for teams, including ourselves, to go out and string together that run, that momentum, that you need.
“Everybody probably outside the Old Firm at this point in time is more than capable of taking points off one another so it’s a really competitive environment.
“I think sometimes we can look at these things as a negative but I genuinely see it as a positive.”
The big city clubs like Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibernian – who have shared third place across the last three seasons – have been unable to find any consistency this term, with St Mirren currently heading the chasing pack behind Celtic and Rangers.
Just three points separate fourth-placed Hearts from Ross County in 11th, and Martindale is adamant that is a scenario that reflects well on the league.
“Take the Old Firm out of the equation, is it a competitive league at that point? I think it is,” he said.
“If you go round most other leagues, it’s probably a similar story in every other nation where there are two or three clubs that dominate at the top and the rest are scrapping away trying to pick up points off each other.
“We’re a small league, there’s only 12 teams. Take the big two out of the league and everybody else is battling for points off one another.
“If you go to England there are maybe four teams fighting for the title out of 20 teams in the league, so percentage-wise it’s probably very similar.
“I think it is a really competitive league. I think you’ll see a lot of chopping and changing of league positions in the coming weeks and months and nobody’s going to know what’s going on until probably matchday 33 (when the league splits).”
