Watch the best bits of Livingston's six-year Premiership stay
Following confirmation of their relegation from the Scottish top flight, BBC Scotland takes a look back at Livingston's highlights during their six-year Premiership stay.
Livingston boss David Martindale says serious planning for next season is already under way after their relegation was confirmed.
Well, the day is finally here. Livingston's relegation from the Premiership has been confirmed.
What did you make of the showing at Motherwell, and the season as a whole? Are you confident the club can bounce back at the first time of asking?
Image source, SNSLivingston manager David Martindale tells BBC Scotland: "I think I've been able to mentally prepare for this day for a long time now. This was a high probabality that this was going to happen.
"Serious planning starts for next season now, I've already started planning. We're the architects of our own downfall. We've not been good enough, but there's been huge moments that have gone against us.
"Today, I think there's three decision from VAR. The penalty is really harsh if I'm honest. I think the player is aiming for that body part [hand].
"Our disallowed goal, I think it's actually a foul on Brucey [Anderson]. I felt it was a perfectly good goal.
4-1 down, I think it's a red card. Joel Nouble is clean through on goal. If there's no contact, you have to book Joel. The decisions today were baffling.
"I've got to take responsibility, I don't want to sit here playing technology or players. I've obviously underperformed, the group's obviously underperformed.
"We've never been in the premiership for six years. We've done that. We broke history, it's really important that doesn't get lost.
"We've had a couple of top-six finishes, a cup final. Hopefully there's a bit of realism applied to it.
"If the club want me here, I'll be here fighting and doing everything I can to get the club back to the Premiership.
"For next year, the aim is to go straight back up. But we're not Hearts or Dundee United. We don't have the same budget. I honestly feel we're capable."
Sean McGill
BBC Sport Scotland
Image source, SNSNot many folk expected Livingston to last as long in the Premiership as they did.
Their time in the top flight has seen Martindale turn the lowest budget in the division into a proper surprise package. A wee machine that churned out great team performances and their fair share of upsets.
Finacial issues have grown, with off-the-field upheaval making this season the one the manager admitted would be his biggest challenge. A challenge, it turns out, too much to overcome.
At times this term, there has been the odd flash of light - though far too scarce to offer any real chance of upsetting the odds.
Livingston's often-chastised support will relish the memories of top-six finishes, European challenges and even a cup final.
Now though, it's a huge rebuild and the Championship to contend with.
David Martindale opts to stick with the same side that kept Livingston's faint survival hopes alive with victory over Ross County last weekend.
Bruce Anderson once again leads the line after his goal seven days ago.
Image source, SNS
Image source, SNSMotherwell: Kelly, O'Donnell, McGinn, Casey, Blaney, Gent, Miller, Halliday, Spittal, Nicholson, Bair.
Substitutes: Oxborough, Mugabi, Paton, Zdravkovski, Shaw, Moses, Ferrie, L.Ross, Butcher.
Livingston: George, Brandon, Devlin, Obileye, Nottingham, MacKay, Sean Kelly, Jason Holt, Stephen Kelly, Pittman, Anderson.
Substitutes: Wright, Montano, Carson, Bradley, Nouble, Sangare, Shinnie, Guthrie, Yengi.
Image source, Getty Images Livingston have signed Maidestone United midfielder Liam Sole on a two-year pre-contract.
The West Lothian club - who look likely to be relegated to the Scottish Championship - have the option to extend the 24-year-old's contract by a further year.
Sole made 36 appearances for the sixth-tier side this term, starting in all five rounds of their magical FA Cup run, including the victory over Championship outfit Ipswich Town.
He will join Livingston in June, with Maidestone's season already over.
Motherwell forward Jack Vale begins a two-match ban following his red card at Aberdeen. Harry Paton (ankle), Jon Obika (hamstring) and Adam Devine (knee) are working towards comebacks while Adam Montgomery (hamstring) and Callum Slattery (knee) are out for the season.
Livingston are set to welcome back Andrew Shinnie from injury and Tete Yengi following suspension. Goalkeeper Jack Hamilton is out with a groin problem, joining James Penrice (hip), Joel Nouble (ankle), Cristian Montano (hamstring) and Shaun Donnellan on the sidelines.
Image source, SNS
Image source, SNSLivingston have announced the seven-day emergency loan signing of Rangers goalkeeper Kieran Wright.
With Jack Hamilton injured, the club moved to sign a back-up to Shamal George for this weekend's match against Motherwell.
Wright's most recent loan spell was with Dumbarton in 2022.
Image source, SNSLivingston manager David Martindale has revealed the club have three players signed up on pre-contracts for next season.
With the West Lothian side nine points adrift at the bottom of the Scottish Premiership with four games remaining, relegation seems inevitable.
However, Martindale says his unnamed new signings were keen to join, regardless of Livingston's division next season.
"We've got three on pre-contracts," he said. "They will be announced in the coming weeks but those three have committed to us before the outcome on Saturday.
“That was probably done three or four weeks ago so they boys are coming here with the right intentions. If we are playing in the Premiership, fine, but if we are in the Championship they are coming with the right intentions to get us back to the Premiership.
“The three we have tied up are the right character. That’s really what I want. Boys who are committed to the football club.”
Martindale is gearing up for a large rebuild in the summer, but says he has a core group of players he can rely on.
“We have 10 or 12 boys that are in contract," he said. "So there is a good nucleus starting point there.
“There is going to be a big turnover this summer. That’s plainly obvious.”
Brian McLauchlin
BBC Sport Scotland
Image source, SNSLivingston manager David Martindale has been talking to the media before his side's Scottish Premiership trip to Motherwell on Saturday.
Here are the key points from his press conference:
Martindale is hoping to bring in an emergency loan goalkeeper on Friday with current back-up Jack Hamilton injured.
Wants his players to believe they can stay up and focus on what they can control. "We can only affect what we can affect and that's the Motherwell game".
Expects a "big turnover" this summer, and admits it’s been “challenging” attracting players given the circumstances at the club.
Despite that, the club have agreed pre-contract deals with three players who have "the right character" for next season.
Martindale says VAR is not value for money and if he was to have a vote he would get rid of it.
Andrew Shinnie should be available for selection having trained this week.
We asked who has impressed you enough to be Livi's player of the season and you provided a mixed bag of answers.
Here is what you had to say:
Neil: Slim pickings for player of the year this season for obvious reasons, however I think James Penrice and Jason Holt have both been standouts. James is a local boy and will be a loss when he leaves for Hearts in the summer. Ex-Jambo Jason Holt has been Mr Reliable this season in midfield and I'm sure other Premiership teams will be showing interest.
Fraser: Aphele Teto has looked great in a Livi shirt this season. Shame we’ve only been able to see him wear one on the clubs shop website. What a poorly planned signing that was as he can’t even play for us.
Kieran: So much quality in the squad, just utilised wrongly. Dan MacKay and Tete Yengi have been the standouts of the season in my opinion.
Image source, BBC/SNS Motherwell have only lost one of their last 13 league meetings with Livingston (W8 D4), going down 2-0 in October this season.
Livingston are winless in their last 15 top-flight visits to Motherwell (D3 L12) since a 5-1 victory in October 2002.
Motherwell have failed to win any of their last four home league matches (D2 L2). In fact, since winning their first two home league matches of the season back in August, the Steelmen have won just two of their last 15 at Fir Park (D6 L7).
Livingston have lost 12 of their last 13 Scottish Premiership matches on the road (D1) and are winless in 15 away from home (D3 L12), their longest winless run on their travels since August 2019 (run of 18).
Motherwell goalkeeper Liam Kelly has completed 317 long passes in the Scottish Premiership this season, at least 43 more than any other player. In fact, of goalkeepers to have completed 100+ long passes this season, only David Marshall (43.2%) and Jack Butland (40.7%) have a better accuracy than Kelly (37.8% - 317 of 838 completed).
Can Livingston maintain momentum from last weekend's victory over Ross County when they travel to Fir Park on Saturday?
Put yourself in David Martindale's shoes and pick your starting line-up here.
It's been a disappointing season for David Martindale's side, whose time in the top flight is hanging by a thread.
But has anyone impressed you in a Livi shirt this term?
Image source, SNSTwenty-six decisions since the start of the Premiership season have been deemed incorrect by the Scottish FA's VAR independent review panel.
The tally, based on incidents requested by the panel or submitted for consideration, is a rise of 10 since February's last meeting of the group.
Not among the incidents included was one where Hibernian claimed the Scottish FA agreed an error had been made.
The governing body later disputed that assertion, made after Hibs were not awarded a penalty after Aberdeen's Nicky Devlin handled in February's 2-2 draw.
The 10 incorrect decisions shared with Premiership clubs on Wednesday were:
Rangers 2-1 Aberdeen (6/02/24): VAR intervention was correct, but final outcome should have been yellow card to Rangers' Dujon Sterling. Referee retained his on-field decision of a red card.
St Mirren 2-0 Dundee (7/02/24): VAR intervention was correct, but final outcome should have been yellow card to St Mirren's James Bolton. Referee retained his on-field decision of a red card.
Ross County 1-1 St Mirren (27/2/24): VAR should have recommended an on-field review. Final outcome should have been penalty awarded against Ross County for handball.
Hearts 1-1 Hibernian (28/2/24): VAR intervention correct, but penalty decision, which led to Hearts' equaliser, should have been overturned - no foul and no penalty should have been awarded.
Kilmarnock 1-2 Rangers (28/2/24): VAR should have recommended an on-field review. Final outcome should have been penalty decision, which led to Kilmarnock opening the scoring, overturned - no handball offense against Rangers.
Hearts 2-0 Celtic (3/3/24): VAR should have recommended an on-field review. Penalty decision should have been overturned - no foul and no penalty should have been awarded to Celtic.
Hearts 2-0 Celtic (3/3/24): On-field decision correct, no penalty to Hearts. Handball should not have been awarded for spot-kick that led to opening goal.
Motherwell 0-1 Aberdeen (16/04/24): VAR should have recommended an on-field review. Penalty to Motherwell should have been awarded for handball.
Hibernian 1-2 St Johnstone (6/4/24): VAR should have recommended an on-field review. Penalty should have been awarded to Hibs for foul by St Johnstone goalkeeper Dimitar Mitov.
St Mirren 1-2 Hearts (6/4/24): VAR intervention correct, but penalty should have been awarded to St Mirren for a foul on Conor McMenamin by Aidan Denholm.
Stuart Barrie
Fan writer
Who saw this win coming? Not me.
I was prepared for the final curtain to be closed on our Premiership survival last Saturday so the three points against Ross County were a bit surprising to say the least.
I reckon other Livi fans thought the drop was inevitable as well as it was very subdued walking to the game and mingling with other supporters.
It was the same in the stadium. To be fair it wasn’t long before we had something to cheer as Livi fired themselves into the game quickly.
There was shades of Livi of old with loads of tenacity, tackling, running and we played some really good football too. Every single player from Shamal George to wee Bruce Anderson did their jobs effectively with loads of effort.
Jamie Brandon is revelling in his centre midfield role, Anderson will get the plaudits for the excellently-taken goal but I was most pleased for Mikey Devlin. We got to see the player we thought we were getting this season. He defended well and played the captain's role cajoling the players around him excellently.
Some optimistic Livi are reaching for the calculators to work out if we can get to safety. It is possible, its just not probable. We need to keep this performance level up and other results to go our way. We’ve left it too late however.
Most Livi fans accepted long ago we’re going down so anything like this again is a real bonus and means we can actually enjoy our football team again.
Jonathan Sutherland
Sportscene presenter
It's not often Livingston players have been named in my team of the week this term.
But after keeping their faint survival hopes alive with victory over Ross County on Saturday, the West Lothian side deserve recognition.
Mikey Devlin was a colossus at the back as Livi kept their second clean sheet in three games, while Sean Kelly was influential in midfield and kept his cool to fire home from the spot.
Watch Sportscene analysis of Livingston's Premiership win over Ross County
Image source, SNSBruce Anderson says Livingston have been unlucky this season but insists they will keep fighting as relegation looms.
The striker, who is set to exit this summer, was on the scoresheet in Saturday's 2-0 win over fellow strugglers Ross County that kept Livi's slender survival hopes alive.
“Its been a difficult season and a lot has gone on," Anderson said.
"Luck has been a big part and there have been a lot of games when we haven’t had any luck. We have four games left to give it a go and try and enjoy it.
“I think there has always got to be [belief] until you are mathematically down. The manager has driven that into us that we have to keep going until the last day.
"We just want to win as many games as possible and see where that takes us."
Watch all the action from West Lothian as Livingston bagged their first win since February. (Available to UK users only).
