Livingston boss David Martindale has revealed he was caught up in a dramatic US embassy lockdown on Wednesday.
The 48-year-old was in London on his day off trying to arrange a visa for a family trip across the Atlantic.
But the trip to the capital was a bit more stressful than he had planned as panic spread across the building over what proved to be a false alarm following reports of a suspicious package.
Martindale was waiting for his meeting when marines swept through the embassy with everyone ordered to find cover and stay away from the windows.
Recalling the incident, he said: “It was about 10 o’clock and the tannoys were going off and the marines were running about everywhere, all they were shouting was, ‘duck and cover and stay away from the windows’.
“There were loads of nationalities queuing like me in the building and they’re all coming up with different theories, ‘there’s a sniper on the roof over there’, some group are claiming they felt a tremor.
“I’m sitting there with a bad back, thinking, ‘I just want to go home’.
He added: “I think it was just over an hour delay. For the first 45 minutes you are thinking, ‘this is a drill’ but then when you could stand up and go to the toilet you saw the fire brigade, police and ambulance staff outside and you knew it was not a drill.
“There were marines all running around the building. You thought you were in a movie, then at one point three marines ran round the corner full speed and one guy said, ‘how do we know you’re the good guys?’ and I’m looking at him thinking, ‘I think you’ve been watching too many films’.
“I’d already picked the team so I didn’t even have that fill my time. What I will say though is that they dealt with it all very professionally.”
Martindale travels north tomorrow as his side make the trip to Aberdeen with the boss admitting thoughts of their last visit to Pittodrie haven’t entered his mind.
The Lions were swept aside 5-0 by the Dons in August, having started brightly before the dismissal of Jack Fitzwater.
He said: ““I don’t focus on that. It does not come into my thinking, maybe for the players as individuals.
“I focus on Saturday, I’m not one for clips out of newspapers or what this manager says. I focus on us as a team.”
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