eful and relaxed. Trying to lift a side which has won only two out of 27 league games would surely tax a whole army of motivational speakers, self-help gurus and sports psychologists. Robertson, though, seems to be working the trick on his own thanks to a combination of good-humoured encouragement and old fashioned coaching acumen. When it comes to football, the man who scored 311 goals for Hearts has an insider's understanding of the striker's black art.

The fact Robertson can analyse the game with a smile on his face shouldn't be mistaken for lack of professionalism. This is a man who believes the paying customer is entitled to be entertained. "I'll never set out a team to draw a game," he insists. But when it comes to discussing Livingston's prospects of clinging on to SPL membership, Robertson couldn't be more serious when he confides he's already planning next season's campaign on the basis the club will still be part of the top 12.

"Anyone who thinks I'm preparing this club for the First Division doesn't know what they're talking about," he said. "I'm here because the SPL is the place to be. Yes, I try to be bubbly and enthusiastic but when I talk to players I only ask them to do things they can do. For example, when I worked with the strikers in training this morning, I told them that what they'll usually hear [from a coach] is movement, movement, movement. Sometimes, though, when you stand still, you give the defender a problem because he doesn't know where you're going next."

Much more at ease - far more like himself, in fact - than he was at times during that brief sojourn with Hearts last season, when the combination of managerial inexperience at the highest level and the pressure attached to coaching the club he served with such distinction as a player for 18 years prompted some unthinking attacks on referees, Robertson regrets those public outbursts and confesses he's already offered his apologies to a number of officials.

A genuine football man, Robertson took time to reflect during his time out of the game. After parting company with Ross County, he was offered sage advice by a seasoned Scottish manager who asked him to consider what they'd talked about and relate it to his relationship with referees.

"I'm a fiery individual," Robertson acknowledged, "but I knew he was right. At Ross County I'd been very calm and didn't get involved with referees. During the four months I was out of the game, I had enough time to appreciate that when a referee makes a mistake he doesn't do it deliberately. He just thinks his decision was right at the time. Now I'm learning to live with that. Do I still get annoyed? Yes, of course. But I appreciate the referees' side of it and have apologised to one or two because I was a little bugger when I was at Tynecastle. At the time, all I could think of was the injustice. Yet when I look back at the transcripts of what I said, I could have been more careful in my choice of words.

"I won't go into the referee's room after a game now to question a decision because there's no point. If the officials are right, you make a complete fool of yourself and if they make a mistake, it will be seen on TV and they'll know they got it wrong. I think I handled things OK when I left Hearts and when I was advised to adopt the same tone and discretion in my dealings with referees, the penny finally dropped."

By a twist of fate, Robertson's first match in charge of Livingston on home turf is against the club with whom he'll always be most closely associated. For both Hearts and their most prolific scorer, a lot has changed since they parted company. While Robertson will do everything in his power to collect three points from them tomorrow, there's no personal enmity towards his former employers.

"At the end of it all, I never fell out with anyone at Tynecastle," he recalled. "Anyone in the game with any real knowledge would know from the signs coming out of the club when I was manager that there was no real support. No-one was saying I would be there the following season. When signing targets were presented, we didn't get answers or were told they weren't good enough.

"I'd arrived in November and we had that great European win in Basle. At home, we were still in touch in the league. I felt if we could have brought in four or five quality players during the January window we might have done something. Instead, we lost three - Mark De Vries, Alan Maybury and Patrick Kisnorbo - I'd rather have kept. So, in a sense, we went into the second half of the season eight men down. Eventually we got Lee Miller and Mark Burchill on loan as well as Saulius Mikoliunas and Deividas Cesnauskis. Although they thought the players we'd targeted were not up to the mark, they weren't saying who they wanted to bring in. I suppose I knew then the writing was on the wall.

"Just as happened in different circumstances when I left Ross County, I felt it was only fair to the players to make a quick decision. I guessed I wasn't going to be there for much longer and it was a case of taking it to the end of the season. In the end it was a footballing decision. They decided I wasn't the man to take them forward and just because of that I wasn't going to throw the toys out of the pram. I was only given six months to manage a side I played with for 18 years, which is fine. While I was with them, I thought I did a pretty decent job, winning in Europe, winning at Parkhead for the first time in years and getting to two semi-finals. By the end, the league position had dropped, but I felt progress was made."

JOHN Robertson, like Denry in Arnold Bennett's "The Card", is good at cheering people up. Having just taken charge of a Livingston side anchored at the bottom of the SPL, seven points adrift of Dunfermline Athletic, the former Scotland player could be forgiven for sniffing trepidation in the air at Almondvale as his old club, Hearts, prepare to visit tomorrow in the company of the TV cameras.

Instead, the mood in West Lothian is purpos

No manager in Scotland has more facts and figures at his fingertips than Robertson. When we talk about the absence of the suspended Paul Hartley and Julien Brellier from the midfield Hearts will field tomorrow, Robertson reminds me 61 players have been training at Riccarton since the end of January.

"When they go off for a run it must be like the start of the Grand National," he grins. "I know not everything has been rosy for them this season and the truth is they've experienced more twists and turns than a roller-coaster ride.

"Yet, if you'd suggested to any Hearts supporter they would play Hibs in the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup in a virtual winner-takes-all contest, as well as looking like claiming a place in the Champions League, I think they'd have gone along with the one or two things happening off the pitch which are not exactly Marquess of Queensberry rules.

"When you see what's going on with Hearts now, it makes you think about the value of hindsight. They've brought in a lot of quality players. As a manager, of course, you want to go to bed at night knowing you're in control of certain aspects. And in my time at Hearts, there was absolutely no interference from Vladimir Romanov or anyone else. He never told me he wanted this one picked or that one left out.

"Six or seven times I was asked to give recommendations about players and who the club should keep or let go. But I can honestly say we never fell out. When I've gone back to Tynecastle subsequently, I've spoke to Mr Romanov and there's no problem.

"If you remember, he wanted me to drop down to become the No2 and coach for four or five years. The feeling was I wasn't experienced enough to take Hearts where they wanted to go. No-one at that stage, bear in mind, really knew what was going to happen next.

"If someone had suggested in a year Hearts could be mixing with Barcelona, Real Madrid and Chelsea, then you could understand why an owner who has pumped millions into the club would want someone in charge with more experience.

"If there was a problem, it was a lack of communication. No-one ever sat down and explained the situation. If the reasoning behind why they wanted to bring someone in above me - because they were going to spend a helluva lot on top class footballers - then I might have thought about it in a different way. On the other hand, I still think the right option for me was to leave Hearts and learn as a manager in my own right rather than be a second in command for four or five years.

"It's a chapter in my life which is finished, I don't worry about it and my only interest is keeping Livingston in the SPL. But if you're asking me could I ever go back one day? In football never say never."

Taken from the Scotsman