Livingston Boss Dave Martindale has got his back up over comments made by Ange Postecoglou this week.

During the pre-match Real Madrid presser, Ange revealed CCV hadn’t travelled with the squad to Spain because he was sore and had picked up an injury playing on Livingston’s plastic pitch.

Martindale was asked about the comments and came out firing saying there was no basis fro Ange’s assessment of the situation. The Livi boss challenged the Celtic manager as to why he thought it was the pitch.

Martindale told Football Scotland: “I can’t speak for the medical staff at Celtic, but what are we basing this on? The park’s too hard? The park’s too soft? Where is the assumption coming from? I don’t know.

“Surely you can’t just say that because it’s plastic you pick up more injuries. Yes it’s different, but what is the difference? It would be good to get a study on that.

“I look at the hybrid pitches and there are a lot of injuries happening on them because they’re very hard and there’s not a lot of give on them. If you look at the English Premier League, when someone scores and does a knee slide, there’s never a divot.

“I get Ange’s frustration, because they’re elite level and we’re not. If I could have Motherwell’s surface and a training facility, I’d take it all day long over the plastic. But do I think it leads to recurring injuries? I’m not so sure.

“I think sometimes it can be an easy rationale as to why someone is injured. Where are all my players’ injuries from playing and training on a plastic pitch?

“And if it’s because of a change of surface, why am I not picking injuries up when we play away on grass parks. It’s up for debate. And where do Celtic B play their games? On a plastic park — so it can’t be that bad.”

The Livingston pitch is an abomination, and we’ve watched as many players we’ve had in our team suffer injuries more often than not on these pitches.

The SPFL should be making a point of banning these surfaces. If clubs don’t have the finances, that has to be looked at, and ways need to be found to make sure the top flight have only pitches.

Martindale is having a laugh if he thinks the plastic pitches don’t have an impact on players, especially the ones who don’t play on it week in and week out.

Celtic beat Livingston 3-0 on the day and dominated the game despite Livi’s inclination to play the most brutal of low blocks, as well as being overly robust in how they go about their business.

1 COMMENT

  1. Fella your pitch is something out of the 50’s. It’s a horrible surface, and unfit for the game in this day and age. Ange got is spot on, all you come up with is excuses. Before you open your mouth – engage your brain, muppett!

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