Big Ask, Wee Man

Richard Winton finds John Robertson up for the fight against his former club

John Robertson and his chairman Pearse Flynn may have put forward their plans for the future to a summit meeting of Livingston season ticket holders last Thursday evening but the Almondvale manager is only too aware of how bleak the coming months might be if he is unable to haul his side off the bottom of the Premierleague.

Still marooned seven points adrift of nearest rivals Dunfermline – albeit with two games in hand – Robertson welcomes his former club Hearts this afternoon knowing that his side need to start picking up points, and quickly, if SPL survival is to be attained. A porous defence and an attack that have only managed to conjure up a meagre 14 goals in 27 league games mean the new manager doesn’t have far to look to identify where things are going wrong.

“It’s a massive ask and a real big challenge, but we’re not going to give up,” Robertson said of a side that have only recorded two league wins all season. “It’s not quite reached desperation stage but it’s getting close. We’ve got to get as close as possible to the teams above us, whoever that is. The only way we can influence that is by our performances and our victories so that’s what we have to do – get victories quickly. If we go into the split seven points behind it’s a big ask with five matches to go.”

Robertson’s first game in charge ended in a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Kilmarnock but, having had two weeks since then to work with his squad, he believes there is sufficient desire and quality within the group to steadily close the chasm to the sides above.

“Sometimes a different voice or face on the training ground can help,” he added. “That may have had a short-term effect against Kilmarnock and we’ll see what the long-term effect is.

“The First Division is not the place to be – you don’t want to go down there. It’s a league packed with quality and very difficult to get out of. Of the last two teams that have been relegated, Partick Thistle have gone down two leagues and Dundee, by their standards and people’s expectations, are struggling.

“This game, perhaps, is typifying what they’ll be missing. A good crowd against Hearts, it’s live on TV, it’s the kind of game you want to play.”

That this afternoon’s visitors are the club Robertson left last May after just six months in charge adds another layer of intrigue to the contest. In one of the first muscle-flexing exercises of Vladimir Romanov’s reign, the manager – still revered by the supporters – resigned after being asked to cede some of his influence over the first team. A familiar scenario to that in operation at Tynecastle now perhaps, but not one Robertson’s dignity allowed him to accept.

Today’s encounter is the first time he has faced the club since then, adding a little extra import to the contest. Not that Robertson – who spent four months at Ross County before alighting at Almondvale – agrees with that assessment, of course.

“It’s not the opposition, it’s the points that are vital for us at the moment,” he insisted. “Yes, there’s an association with Hearts and there always will be but my colours are firmly nailed to the Livingston mast. We need the points more than they do.

“I’ve absolutely no problems with Hearts. The club made a decision based on what they thought was the right thing and they’re in the semi-final of the Scottish Cup again and looking like qualifying for the Champions League, so it’s a decision they’ll feel was justified.

“You’re always going to have thoughts, of course, and hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I left after having a chance there for six months. I had two semi-finals, we won in Europe, we won at Celtic Park and they decided, at the end, that they were going to go elsewhere.

“Ce’st la vie, that’s it, get on with it. I’ve done a decent job at Ross County since then – they’re challenging for the title – and now I’m here trying to pull off Mission Impossible II.”

That description of the task in hand could be misconstrued as defeatism but Robertson, for one, claims his attitude is very much a positive one.

“People may think I’m under pressure but what is pressure? You’ve got people who are on the dole, that’s pressure. I’ve been under more pressure in the last four months when I couldn’t make my mortgage repayments.

“That’s life, this is a game and it’s there to be enjoyed. You get good results and bad results, somebody’s got to be bottom of the league and unfortunately just now it’s Livingston.

“My job is to make sure that, at the end of the season, it’s not.”

Taken from the Sunday Herald