David Martindale shares how Hibs 'crucified' Livingston at Almondvale as rotated cast dish out timely lesson
Hibs claimed a 2-0 win in a Premier Sports Cup tie at Livingston on Sunday.
Livingston manager David Martindale made a frank admission after Hibs eased to a comfortable win over his side in Sunday’s Premier Sports Cup second round tie.
David Gray opted to shuffle his pack as he looks to cope with the demands placed upon his squad by their European exploits and that meant the likes of Raphael Sallinger, Grant Hanley and Thibault Klidje were all handed starts after being named as substitutes for Thursday’s UEFA Conference League meeting with Partizan. It was the latter of that trio that opened the scoring at Almondvale just two minutes before half-time and summer signing Josh Mulligan settled the contest in the closing stages.
The win means Hibs will joined the likes of Aberdeen, Rangers and Celtic in the quarter-final of the competition and now sit just two wins away from a potential Hampden Park final. It also rounded off a positive few days for Gray and his player after they progressed into the play-off round of the Conference League after coming through what was a dramatic tie against Partizan despite suffering a 3-2 defeat in Thursday night’s second leg.
For Livi boss Martindale, there were no complaints about the defeat as he admitted Hibs deserved their win and praised Gray’s men for ‘flying’ after a promising start to the season.
Speaking after the game, he said: “I don’t think we deserved to go through, Hibs deserved it. We lost a poor goal just before half-time but I don’t think there was much in the game until then. Hibs are flying and against top six teams you get crucified, that’s what happens against the bigger clubs. Second half we changed shape and it helped us, we looked like we might get the next goal. But Mulligan came up with an incredible goal and then the game ran away from us.”
What has David Gray said about Hibs Premier Sports Cup win at Livingston?
“Everyone was of a very high standard, which was to the benefit of the group. I thought it was a very professional performance, we had good control of the game and deserved to go through. I’m delighted for the players because before the game we knew people would be looking at this asking how we’d cope with another game in Europe, extra-time, coming to Livingston on an artificial pitch, and the mental fatigue because of the schedule we’ve been on.
“I thought it was a brilliant performance from that point of view. We were able to make changes and the level of performance didn’t drop, so it was really good day’s work from everyone. We knew this schedule was coming so had to be prepared for it, so that’s why you have a squad.