Livingston need experience to stay up after Kenny Miller exit, says Preston
- Published
Livingston were knocked out of the League Cup by Motherwell on Saturday
Livingston need to appoint an experienced manager to stay up after Kenny Miller's departure, believes the club's former boss Allan Preston.
Miller has left his role as player-manager after Livingston wanted the 38-year-old to focus on managing.
Livi also recently disbanded their youth academy and Preston says fans "deserve better".
"Livingston need someone that knows the league, knows the club and knows what Livingston are all about," he said.
"If they want to stay up they need someone like Miller with his experience as a player, to try and pull them through the tough times, which are definitely going to be be ahead for them.
"There's people out of jobs like John Hughes, who's been there before. Robbie Neilson's out of a job, Jim McIntyre's out of a job - guys of that ilk who've got great experience. Will they take that job? I'm not so sure.
"I don't know Gary Holt at all as a coach but I think that they need someone with more experience now. Giving someone a manager's job that's not really managed up here for any length of time is going to be very, very difficult."
Neilson was most recently at MK Dons having previously been head coach at Hearts while McIntyre, who won the 2016 League Cup with Ross County, has been out of management since leaving the Highland side last year. Holt had a spell in charge of Falkirk before returning to coach at Norwich City but left the Canaries in 2016.
Watch: Miller's seven weeks at Livingston
Preston had a brief spell as manager in 2004 during Livi's first period in administration and, after surviving a second insolvency event in 2009, the club won successive promotions to return this year to the top flight for the first time in 12 years.
Under David Hopkin, the West Lothian side finished last season's Championship as runners-up and eventually beat Partick Thistle - second bottom in the top flight - in the Premiership play-off final.
Hopkin decided to leave but has yet to join a new club and former Celtic, Rangers and Scotland striker Miller guided Livi through their League Cup first-round group before they were knocked out at the second stage by Motherwell on Saturday. In the Premiership, Miller's side took one point from their opening two games.
"Fans deserve better," Preston told BBC Scotland. "They've been through the ringer through two administrations, different managers, different boards. They've been pulled from pillar to post.
"They've done wonderfully well to get two promotions in a row - they've taken time to get players in and attract someone like Miller and it's not worked out, a real shame.
"He was a great addition. I can see why he wanted to still play. It was the perfect solution to have assistant David Martindale on the bench doing everything for him there and Kenny would go on as the manager, playing and passing his experience on to the younger boys in and around that team."
'Big disruption in the background' - analysis
Former Scotland striker Steven Thompson
It is very strange given that Kenny Miller has only been there seven weeks, and there has been a lot of positive chat from him about his first managerial job.
But you are not leaving a job after seven weeks unless there has been a big disruption in the background.
It is a disruption Livi could have done without because they are already going to be fighting fires all season trying to stay in the league.
Now they have to find a new manager two weeks into the season. All the players who have been working with Kenny are going to have to adapt to a new guy.