Livingston F.C.

Livingston F.C.

Full name	Livingston Football Club
Nickname(s)	Livi Lions or Livi
Founded	1943 (as Ferranti Thistle)
Ground	Almondvale Stadium (Capacity: 10,122)
Chairman	Gordon McDougall
Manager	Gary Bollan
League	Scottish Third Division
2008–09	Scottish First Division, 7th
Home colours Away colours

Livingston Football Club is a Scottish association football club based in Livingston, West Lothian. The club currently plays in the Scottish Football League Third Division.

The club was founded in 1943 as Ferranti Thistle, a works team. The club was admitted to the Scottish Football League and renamed as Meadowbank Thistle in 1974, and played its matches at Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh. In 1995, the club was relocated to Livingston and renamed after that town. The club enjoyed significant success in the ten years after moving to Livingston, winning promotion to the Scottish Premier League in 2001, qualifying for the UEFA Cup in its first season in the top flight, and winning the 2004 Scottish League Cup. The club hit financial problems in 2004, however, and was relegated to the First Division in 2006. In July 2009 liquidation proceedings began and then stopped a day later once an agreement was reached between the SFA, the administrators and potential investors to keep the club afloat. However, the club was then demoted to the Third Division.^[1]

History

Ferranti Thistle (1943–1974)

Early Ferranti Thistle FC club badge Meadowbank Thistle FC club badge Original Livingston FC club badge

The club began life as Ferranti Thistle in 1943. A works team, they initially played in the East of Scotland League. The team played at City Park in Edinburgh. Following the demise of Third Lanark, a place opened up in the second division of the Scottish Football League. After beating off competition from four Highland League sides, Hawick Royal Albert and Gateshead United, Ferranti Thistle were accepted into the league by a vote of 21–16 over Inverness Thistle. However, due to stringent SFL rules on overt sponsorship of teams at the time, Ferranti Thistle were forced to change their name to take their place in the league. After a campaign by the Edinburgh Evening News to find a name for the club, the name Meadowbank Thistle was chosen, and approved by the SFL in time for the new season.

Meadowbank Thistle (1974–1995)

Having had little time to form a squad from the existing Ferranti squad, the first Meadowbank Thistle manager John Bain faced an uphill task to produce a competitive squad in time for the new season. Meadowbank played their first competitive match in the League Cup, eventually losing 1–0 despite the strenuous efforts of a go-go dancer hired to mark the occasion.

Their apex came in the late 1980s. In the 1986–87 season, Meadowbank won the Scottish Division Two championship and won promotion to Division One. They finished Division One runners-up the following season but were denied promotion to the Premier Division due to a streamlining of the size of the division.

The club suffered from the restructuring of the Scottish Football League in the 1994–95 season. Having finished mid-table in Division One, they were relegated to Division Two because the league was scrapping its format of two 12-club and one 14-club divisions in favour of four divisions of 10 clubs. Meadowbank suffered a second successive relegation in 1994–95, finishing second from bottom in Division Two. After this, Chairman Bill Hunter claimed Meadowbank had run into severe financial difficulties and were facing closure as a result (a claim hotly disputed by most supporters). As a result, and in the face of significant opposition from many Meadowbank fans who objected to the dropping of the club name and the team moving from Edinburgh, in 1995 Meadowbank Thistle relocated to a new stadium in the new town of Livingston and changed name again, to Livingston F.C.

Livingston

Their first season ended in triumph as they were crowned champions of the Scottish Division Three for the 1995–96 season. Three years later, in 1998–99, they won promotion again as Division Two champions. Another promotion followed in 2000–01 when the club finished champions of Division One and gained promotion to the Scottish Premier League after just six seasons in existence. Livingston's first SPL campaign, 2001–02, brought more success as they finished third in the league (behind Celtic and Rangers) and qualified for the UEFA Cup. The club's reputation grew particularly after a competent showing in the UEFA Cup. After deposing of FC Vaduz of Liechtenstein on the away goal rule after a 1–1 draw, they came up against SK Sturm Graz of Austria, and after a thrilling 14 goal, 2 leg affair they narrowly missed out on the second round, going out on the wrong side of an astonishing 8–6 aggregate scoreline. The club avoided the second season syndrome however finishing 9th the following season. Livingston won their first National trophy in 2004 by winning the 2003-04 League Cup after a 2–0 win over Hibernian at Hampden Park. The goals in the final were scored by Derek Lilley and Jamie McAllister.

However the club's rise was short lived as they went into financial administration on 3 February 2004^[2] Many fans found this ironic considering their sponsor for a while was Intelligent Finance. It was 13 May 2005 before Livingston emerged from administration, following a period of financial turmoil in which the previous boardroom occupants were ousted to make way for Pearse Flynn's Lionheart Consortium. On February 11, 2006, Paul Lambert resigned as Livingston manager after 12 straight defeats leaving Livingston bottom of the Scottish Premier League. He was replaced by former player and coach John Robertson.

Livingston defend a corner from the now defunct Gretna at Almondvale Stadium in 2007.

Despite his best efforts, Livingston were relegated for the first time in May 2006, and a poor showing in the 2006–07 First Division saw John Robertson removed as Livingston manager on 15 April 2007. His successor was announced on the 22 May 2007 as former Hibernian assistant coach Mark Proctor. Proctor appointed Curtis Fleming as his assistant on the 26 June 2007, but both were sacked in June 2008 after a disappointing season in which they finished seventh. Livingston are now owned by Italian majority shareholders Angelo Massone, Tommaso Bruno, Alessandro Di Mattia, and Tommaso Angelini after Pearse Flynn sold his shares in June 2008. The Italian were thought to be close to appointing fellow Italian Roberto Landi as head coach in June^[3] and he was made manager of the First Division side on 11 June 2008.^[4] However he and assistant Valter Berlini were then fired on 1 December after just five months in charge.^[5] Paul Hegarty was linked with the job on 3 December, and formally appointed two days later.^[6] Hegarty was subsequently suspended as manager on 26 April 2009.

John Murphy was appointed head coach on 30 June 2009, the same day the club faced a deadline to pay debt to West Lothian Council (who own the stadium). After that was not met, legal proceedings were carried out against the club to come to an arrangement over the debt within fourteen days or potentially face again going into administration.^[7] Livingston were placed into administration on 24 July by the Court of Session in Edinburgh^[8], and face relegation to the Third Division, a points deduction or being removed from the Scottish Football League entirely.^[9] On 27 July 2009, it was revealed that the club were likely to go into liquidation after owner Angelo Massone said he would refuse a £25,000 offer for the club from their administrator.^[10] On 28 July 2009, Massone yet again refused the offer and the administrator subsequently started the liquidation process.^[11] While Livingston seemed doomed, a meeting with the Scottish Football League on July 30 secured their future, as they agreed to allow prospective new owners Gordon McDougall and Neil Rankine run the club for the following season. The next day, Massone sold his shares to the new owners and left the club, and it was also announced that John Murphy had been reduced back to his previous role as goalkeeping coach, with ex-player Gary Bollan becoming the club's new manager. In their first game after the new owners took over, Livingston were on the wrong end of a cup shock in the Scottish League Cup first round, losing 3-0 to Albion Rovers, a team two divisions below Livi.

Despite the new owners ensuring that Livingston's future as a professional football club would be secure for the next year at least, by paying a £720,000 bond to the SFL, on August 5 the Scottish Football League took the move to put Livingston in the Third Division, a breach of rules was the main reason behind the decision. An appeal was lodged and as a result the club refused to play their opening Division Three fixture against East Stirlingshire on August 8.^[1][12]

Honours

• Scottish League Cup Winners (1) - 2004
• Scottish First Division Winners (1) - 2000–01
• Scottish Second Division Winners (2) - 1985–86¹, 1998–99
• Scottish Third Division Winners (1) - 1995–96
• Scottish Challenge Cup Runners Up (1) - 2000–01
• Scottish Qualifying Cup (South) Winners (1) - 1973–74²

¹ This includes honours won between 1974 and 1995, when The club were known as Meadowbank Thistle.

² This includes honours won between 1943 and 1974, when The club were known as Ferranti Thistle.

Kit sponsors

Managers

As Meadowbank Thistle

• John Bain (1974–1976)
• Alex Ness (1976–1978)
• Willie MacFarlane (1978–1980)
• Terry Christie (1980–1992)
• Donald Park (1992–1994)
• Mickey Lawson (1994–1995)

As Livingston

• Jim Leishman (1995–1997)
• Ray Stewart (1997–2000)
• Jim Leishman (2000–2003)
• Marcio Maximo Barcellos (2003)
• David Hay (2003–2004)
• Allan Preston (2004)
• Richard Gough (2004–2005)
• Paul Lambert (2005–2006)
• Alec Cleland (Caretaker, 2006)
• John Robertson (2006–2007)
• Dave Bowman (Caretaker, 2007)
• Mark Proctor (2007–2008)
• Roberto Landi (2008)
• Paul Hegarty (2008–2009)
• David Hay (Caretaker, 2009)
• John Murphy (2009)
• Gary Bollan (2009–)

Coaching Staff

• Manager: Gary Bollan
• Assistant Manager: Scott Paterson
• Fitness Coach:
• Goalkeeper Coach:
• Physiotherapist:
• Head Of Youth Development: Brian Welsh
• Under-19 Coach: Paul Connoly
• Under-16 Coach: Derek McWilliams
• Under-15 Coaches: Willie Kirk, Jim Hillhouse
• Under-14 Coaches: Phil Kidd, Steve Forrest
• Under-13 Coach & Community Coach:
• Under-12 Coach: Peter Main
• Under-11 Coaches: Derek Turkington, James Brown
• Community Co-ordinator: Leigh Robertson
• Community Coaches: Shaun Scobie, Mark McGavin, Jim Coleman, David Donnelly-Kay

Source: http://www.livingstonfc.co.uk

Players

First-team squad

As of 28 August 2009

No. Position Player GK Roddy McKenzie DF Jonathan Brown (on loan from Hearts) DF Danny Griffin DF Cameron MacDonald DF Ewan Moyes (on loan from Hibernian) DF Jason Talbot MF Joe Hamill MF Keaghan Jacobs DF Chris Malone

No. Position Player MF Liam Fox MF Anthony McParland MF David Sinclair MF Mark Torrance MF Stephen Husband (on loan from Hearts) FW Raffaele De Vita FW Sean Kerr FW Robbie Winters FW David Winters

Under-19 team

No. Position Player GK Darren Jamieson GK Craig McDowall DF Neil Hastings DF Devon Jacobs DF Sheldon Jacobs

No. Position Player MF Kyle Jacobs FW Conor Thomson FW Andrew Halliday

Club records

• Record Victory: 7 – 0 v Queen of the South, 29 January 2000
• Record Defeat: 0 – 8 v Hamilton Academical, 14 December 1974
  • Record Defeat as Livingston F.C.: 0 – 7 v Hibernian, 8 February 2006
• Most Goals in a Season: 22 – Leigh Griffiths (2008–09)

See also

• Relocation of professional sports teams

Clubs that have relocated:

• • Clyde
  • Wimbledon
  • Tokyo Verdy
  • Atlante Fútbol Club
  • Clydebank F.C.

References

External links

• Official site
• LiviLions fan site
• [1] - Livingstons Ultra Group
• Photos of Livingston FC
• Livingston BBC My Club page