FNH

David Martindale's journey from prison to leading Livingston

04-Dec-2020 19:00:19 | The Guardian

Scottish Premiership club’s interim manager on the ‘greed’ that landed him in jail, his anger, regret and hopes for the future

Arresting baddies on the Friday before a holiday Monday is a well-known police ploy. It is Easter weekend, 2004, and David Martindale must stare at blank walls until court sits on Tuesday. “Four days locked up in a cell is horrific,” he says. “It feels like four months. I knew I had to change my life.”

Martindale’s subsequent journey is among the more incredible Scottish football has witnessed. Partly, that is, because he is full of remorse about the actions that landed him in a police station yards from Celtic Park. Livingston’s board confirmed on Friday they are “comfortable” with Martindale continuing to manage the team on an interim basis. Such a statement is understandable given the top-flight club’s trajectory, with Martindale an increasingly significant figure and on the verge of a Uefa A coaching licence.