Marvin Bartley Returns to Livingston with Stenhousemuir

Marvin Bartley will walk back into Livingston on Friday night without so much as a word exchanged with the man who reshaped his career.

No calls. No catch-up. Nothing.

The Stenhousemuir manager has not spoken to Livingston sporting director David Martindale since resigning from the West Lothian club at the end of last season. The reunion comes live on BBC Scotland, under the Championship lights, with plenty of history and a fair bit of needle humming quietly in the background.

A clean break from Livingston

Back in May, Bartley and his assistant Neil Hastings stunned Livingston by walking away. Both said they "had no option but to resign" after being told to reapply for their own jobs. Bartley had only stepped up in January, promoted from a backroom role when Martindale moved upstairs into a new position.

The way it ended still jars.

"No, I've not seen or spoken to Davie since leaving the football club," Bartley says. "Obviously, he's got a busy time over the summer in terms of bringing in players. He's busy, I'm busy so I've not spoken to Davie since leaving the football club."

The silence with Martindale contrasts with the tone from upstairs. Since his departure, Bartley has kept in touch with chairman Calvin Ford, who sent him what Bartley calls a "lovely message" after Stenhousemuir dumped Livingston out of the League Cup on penalties at Ochilview.

That shootout win felt like a small act of personal closure. But the scars from the way it ended at Almondvale took time to settle.

"At the time, I was definitely hurt in the days that followed," he admits. "When the situation happened, I was really, really shocked.

"But the more people I spoke to about it – and the more people that found out about it who weren't shocked – probably made me realise that I was maybe a little bit naive and green.

"That's probably just me as a person. I take everything at face value."

From shock to surge

Whatever bruises he carried out of Livingston have been channelled into something powerful at Ochilview.

Stenhousemuir, part-time and written off before a ball was kicked, have stormed into the Championship season unbeaten in nine matches across all competitions. They sit looking down the division after three wins and a draw, the latest a sharp 3-1 victory over Inverness Caledonian Thistle last weekend.

Bartley only landed the job when Gary Naysmith, the man who dragged Stenny up from League 1, left for Ayr United. It could easily have been a holding act. Instead, Bartley has turned it into a statement.

He has guided the Warriors through a strong League Cup group, knocked out Premiership side Motherwell, and earned a home quarter-final against Hearts next Friday. For a squad training part-time, the schedule looks like something from a different world.

And he is loving it.

"Right now, I have got no kind of feeling to it," he says of his Livingston exit. "It's just another chapter in my book and I'm just continuing to try to do the best I possibly can for Stenhousemuir."

Fairytale whispers in a brutal league

The Championship has seen this film before. Arbroath, another part-time club, tore up the script five years ago, Dick Campbell’s Red Lichties pushing Kilmarnock all the way in a wild title race that almost rewrote Scottish football’s order.

Stenhousemuir’s start invites the obvious question. Do the Warriors dare to dream of back-to-back promotions and a leap into the top flight that would border on the unbelievable?

"Every club in the pyramid now dreams of one day being in the top flight," Bartley says. He knows what people want him to say next. He refuses to bite.

"There's still so long to go and it's a boring answer for you all, but when I came into the job we spoke about what we hope to achieve and that's not changed.

"We've got that target and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out what that target is because everyone had us as favourites to go down in this league and we understand we are only four games into it.

"We can't get carried away with thinking about promotion or play-offs or anything like that because this league is unforgiving.

"We're thinking about achieving our goals and if we do that, that's a minor miracle in itself when you look at the financial constraints we have compared to every other club in this league."

Livingston next, Hearts looming

Before Hearts arrive in town, there is the small matter of Livingston and Glenn Whelan’s side, who have started the league campaign with two wins and two defeats. A club Bartley knows inside out, a director he hasn’t spoken to since he walked away, and a fanbase that once saw him as part of the fabric.

The cameras will be there. The narrative writes itself. But Bartley insists the emotion is gone, the hurt filed away.

His team’s form suggests otherwise. Stenhousemuir are playing like a group intent on proving every pre-season prediction wrong.

If this is just another chapter in Bartley’s book, the next few weeks will tell whether it turns into a full-blown epic.