DISAPPOINTED David Martindale lamented the ‘schoolboy error’ that allowed Celtic to hit the front in their win over his Livingston team, but he admitted that the visitors deserved their victory after working harder than his players – even when they went down to 10 men.
The Livingston manager was hugely frustrated with his side after handing Celtic the initiative, as defender Luiyi De Lucas tripped Reo Hatate in the area to allow the midfielder to give the visitors a crucial early lead.
And Martindale was irked that his men had subsequently been outworked after Joe Hart saw red for a foul on Livi attacker Mo Sangare.
“I’m disappointed,” Martindale said.
“They have a schoolboy error for the first goal because he’s not going anywhere and he puts his foot out. If he scores from there, we’ll ask ourselves questions. But we give a penalty away from that.
“I’m really, really disappointed. I didn’t think there was a lot in the game at that point. The shape and the system wasn’t too bad at that point. I think we are fairly competitive in the game at that point. In all honesty, we were probably better 11 v 11.
“In the second half after that second goal I think Celtic were worth their money. I thought they worked a lot harder than us all over the park.
“Their application, their endeavour, their desire was probably a lot better than what we showed against 10 men. Sitting here, I’m hugely frustrated at the result, but I don’t think we deserved more from the game in all honesty.
“We are probably not expected to get anything from the game with 11 v 11. But, when Celtic go down to 10 men after 30 minutes, I’m not having that we shouldn’t expect to get something from the game.
“Expectations go up at the that point, but the harsh reality is we got beat 2-0 with 10 men.”
