David Martindale says Livingston have to take pride in their clean sheet tally – but they are losing a key part in that with Ciaron Brown heading back to Cardiff City.
The Lions drew 0-0 with Aberdeen on Saturday, a ninth clean sheet during Martindale’s reign as boss. He is still to taste defeat out of those 13 matches.
And the record of goals conceded is something Livi should be proud of: “We got into half-decent areas but we never really maximised that. When JET (Jay Emmanuel-Thomas) came on we held the ball up and got the switch of play out to the left-back and the right-back but we need to do a wee bit better in the final third. But there wasn’t much in the game.
“If you ask Derek (McInnes, Aberdeen manager) he will say the same thing – that a draw was probably the fair result. That is nine clean sheets in 13 games and they have to take a lot of pride in that because that is an incredible stat.”
They are losing part of their defence though, left-sided defender Brown recalled from his loan by Cardiff City. Martindale hopes it’s the right call for the defender: “We got the heads up a few weeks ago, that’s why Jackson Longridge came back into the club.
“If Neil Harris had still been at the club (former Bluebirds manager) , I have a good relationship with Neil, I think we might have been able to keep him for another six months. It’s not to be but I’m more than happy with Jackson Longridge and Julien Serrano. I just hope he goes down there and gets a fair crack of the whip this time.”
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