Livingston 1 Ross County 1: Livi fan spitting claim mars Premiership play-off final first leg as Martindale blasts 'vile' incident

Daily Record

22-05-2025

The Lions were pegged back by a controversial late penalty, which sparked ugly scenes amongst the home support
By Ian Steven
Livingston's first leg playoff tussle against Ross County descended into chaos at the final whistle as a Libi fan was accussed of spitting in the face of a Ross County coach and overshadowed what was a finely-poised contest.
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With Staggies celebrating their late Ronan Hale penalty to cancel out Danny Wilson first-half opener, a man from the home support approached the Ross County bench and appeared to spit at assistant manager Carl Tremarco, prompting a revolted Davie Martindale to lament: 'It's disgusting, it's vile, it's disappointing. '
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The club were quick to apologise to Ross County with manager Martindale visibly frustrated with an element of discordant behaviour creeping into Scottish football recently.
Martindale said: 'I'm not really too versed on it, but if it was what I've heard, it's disgusting, it's vile, it's disappointing. It's no reflection on our full fan base. It's an individual, so really disappointing.
'I've been feeling football's been getting out of hand the last two or three years. I say this old analogy, I'll pay my money and I can shout what I want. This all comes from remember, maybe not just this incident, but I do feel there's an entitlement there.
'Certain parts of fan bases that they feel they can come shout abuse. I can come to a football game. I pay my money and I can do what I want. Don't believe in it. Don't agree with it. I think it's the only sport in the world that you can come and abuse your own players, fellow players, it isn't representative of our fan base. I've been here 11 years and really that's the first time that I've known that something like this has happened, so really disappointing.
'You were seeing it in the relegation we went through, my wife couldn't even go and sit in the stand. My daughter couldn't even go and sit in the stand.. We're going through a tough time. Does that give people the right to come and abuse you at games of football?
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'If you come away and you're abusing people at games of football, shouting, abuse at them, I think then it lays the foundations for all the things to happen, bottles to be thrown, fans confronting players.
'I do feel that it's kind of growing because I don't think we're dealing with the problem on the stands. Is it really OK to pay your money and come and shout abuse at people? I don't get it, I genuinely don't get it. It shouldn't be allowed anywhere near football in any form.
'So we've gotta start setting the tone. We've gotta start setting the line in the sand, what's acceptable and what's not.
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"We are sitting here talking about that, but it doesn't represent our fan base. It's happened. It's happened, but I'm sure the club will deal with it. And I should apologise for everybody at the club. I'm sure I speak for everybody at the club to Don Cowie's staff because it's unacceptable and it shouldn't even be happening.'
Livingston had looked poised to take a slender lead to the Highlands after Danny Wilson slammed home a Stephen Kelly penalty in the first half, and despite calls for a spot kick for a foul on Lewis Smith, the Lions could not extend their lead, with Wilson giving away a cheap penalty in injury time after VAR intervened, leaving Martindale frustrated with the officiating.
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He added: 'We were unlucky not to win. I thought we created enough chances. They had a lot of set plays. The game was pretty direct. We dealt with them fairly well.
'Jerome comes up there big save. I don't think they cause any problems outside the set plays. And even then we score from a set play. So we dealt with them fairly well. Ironically, we score with a set play, but I felt we built the game quite well. At times they came and pressed, but I felt we built the game quite well.
'I thought we had the better opportunities in the game. And we probably should have had another goal. If we'd looked after the ball a wee bit better, finishing and execution. I think we got a couple of transitions in the game and we just need to take care in that final third, a wee bit more care.
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'So I thought we tried to build the game but create some half decent chances. Just final thought. I'm obviously disappointed, but I think it's a penalty from Danny. I that I think it's soft, but I think it's a penalty.
'So you want to go and grab the opposition player shirt in your box, you're going to ask for trouble. But again, I'll caveat that with, I thought it was a penalty for Smithy as well, so I thought it was a penalty on Smithy. Okay. Disappointed. We are so late in the game, but the game's very much of a muchness and if I'm really honest, I feel we would have to score up there anyway.
'And again, that's not really changed. I think we'd need to go up there. We'd need to score. I don't think you're getting a win now. It's an aggregate win over two legs and being honest with you, nothing's really changed for that perspective when we go there. And we need to score.'
The sides go again on Monday night in Dingwall for the second leg.