Scottish League Division III

Almondvale Stadium

Attendance: 1200

For a club based in such a large town Livingston FC have not achieved as much as they could have both in terms of financial income and crowds.  The words of 'Ironic' could well have been played at half time during games during the heydays of 2002-2004.  Back in the glorious West Lothian heyday of UEFA cup football and third place finishes in the Scottish Premier League, Livingston were sponsored by finance company Intelligent Finance.    Sadly that was not the remit the club followed as a succession of foreign signings and hefty pay packets led to the club entering administration in 2004. After relegation to the lower Scottish First Division in 2006 things have never really got back on track for the club either on the field or off it.  A succession of entrepreneurial owners going back to Pearce Flynn have swept into Livingston with big ideas to transform the club. 

Things got even worse for the club during 2009 when the club was but a few hours from going completely bankrupt and there with it out of existence altogether. The last of part of the 2009 season saw players wages not being paid as off field trauma and boardroom squabbles threatened the very existence of the club. At the last moment the club was saved but this came at a price as it found itself straight back where it started; in the lowest rung of football in Scottish League Third Division.

After Edinburgh, Livingston is the second largest settlement in the Lothian area of Scotland. The area as a settlement had been around for many years but as a new town it eventually became known as a 'Glasgow urban overspill' area in the 1970's and since then infrastructure such as housing, train stations and retail areas have grown considerably. Today it feels like new build homes are everywhere; a bright and useful alternative to inner city life.  It feels like familyville and a good decent place to bring up a young family. At the same time it also feels rather dull, culture deviod and stale compared to the historical hot spot of Edinburgh some 16 miles away.  Its startingly similar to Milton Keynes in terms of inner feel and layout.  All in all you get the impression that if you ever went on a pub crawl in Livingston you would need a car to get around.

Although a variety of smaller clubs sit around Livingston the team, known to locals as the "black and ambers" or the "Livi Lions" are the most successful football team across the county of West Lothian. They were formed in 1995 after the re-location of Meadowbank Thistle, who were formally known as Ferranti Thstle from Edinburgh. They started life in the Scottish Third Division and were promoted to the Scottish Second Division in their very first year of existence.

In the season of 1998-1999 Livingston were promoted to the Scottish First Division after they were crowned champions of the Second Division. They spent two seasons in the second tier of Scottish football and in the 2000-2001 season they were promoted to the SPL. Many people thought that Livi over-achieved in their first SPL season after they finished in third position behind Celtic and Rangers.  The club grew too soon and finances with it were never managed competantly.   

Crowds at the Almondvale ground had grown easily and briskly in the early days of the clubs existence in the town. Back in 1995 with the club in the Third Division, it could easily pull in 3000 supporters even against the likes of Albion Rovers. After this crowds also grew reaching a peak with the club in the SPL.    Livingston FC's record attendance of 10,020 came in the 2003 season with a 0-0 draw at home to Celtic.

Livingston's rise was such that it kicked off the 2002-2003 season in the UEFA Cup. They managed to get through to the second round of the competition after beating FC Vaduz of Liechtenstein who played in the Swiss League, in the first round on the away goals rule. However, they faced a tougher task in the second round against Sturm Graz of Austria, then a prominent side with Champions League experience. They went out of the competition at this stage after a thrilling 8-6 aggregate loss. However the club recorded its first and only ever European victory in the return leg with a 4-3 win.

Back in the early days of the clubs existence the club became famous for a lone drummer who beat a drum constantly at home games. Around him grew a selection of other fans and very soon the group became known as the Drum Beat Mafia. The DBM today are a loosely congregated group of young lads who pretty much have a lot too offer the club and the match-day atmosphere at a ground struggling to pull in 1,000. However, whilst the group has its own internet presence, merchandise and flags they have been treated shockingly by the football system in Scotland and by the very club they support. Despite flags, enthusiasm and passion for the club the group's name has been treated like  dirt and those attached to it treated like criminals and undeseribles by the club and the Scottish football system.

The walk from Livingston North station to the ground is not the best for any football fan. Indeed, on this specific Saturday it was cold, wet and misty and the entire walk from the train station saw me pass roundabout after roundabout.   Thousands of cars flew by but not a single person passed me and it felt bizarre.   If you are going to Livingston hoping to say hello to anyone or shake someone's hand you will be disappointed. 

On any given Saturday afternoon walking down Alderstone Road about the only thing you can say 'good day' too on a walk to Almondvale is a lamppost.   What I had was free to walk public pathways all to myself with no other human beings around.  The streets look as if they are populated by police looking for petty crime, and misplaced youths with tracksuits.   God knows what Bill Bryson would think about Livingston.  All in all, it seems that although Livingston has clean pavements, underpasses and pedestrianied crossings in abundance almost everyone has a car to use and chooses to use this at the expense of walking and using legs.  There is the odd jogger around but it feels empty of people but full of houses.

The downside of this for visiting fans to Almondvale is that the ground is shockingly poorly signposted for fans arriving by train. The train station gives no clues as to where the ground could be and its not really possible to ask anyone for directions, basically as there is no-one else around.  No supporters buses heading to the ground and no supporters spilling out of match-day pubs.  From that you can detect that this is the way the club has been set up; a club for fans with cars who arrive at the ground, park outside and put on a scarf. After the game they then get back in the car, take the scarf off and go home.

To summarise, lesson one from Livingston is that it is not a good place for visiting or groundhopping  with home fans and indulging in pre and post match drinking. Just as there are no people and no directions to the ground there are absolutely no traditional fan pubs to enjoy drinks before the game. Even where these do exist (there are a few bars in the town) these are incredibly supporter unfriendly and hostile to football fans.

The problem with Livingston is that it is like many other clubs who have chosen to relocate with the aim of progress. Like its cousin of Clyde FC, who chose to relocate to Cumbernauld from Rutherglen in Glasgow, the Livi Lions are a 'failed project' that reached a peak some five years ago but now find themselves cast adrift and never likely to reach former heights.    The club is struggling to get fans inside the stadium so much that it has resolved to giving away free tickets to school children in an effort to fill up its 9,300 empty seats every home game. Its still failing badly though with crowds this year struggling to reach 1,000.

I eventually arrive at the Livingston ground at 3.01pm just in time to see Forfar Athletic take the lead through a Gibson volley in the second minute. Inside the ground it feels cold, wet and largely atmosphere less. The children who have turned up with parents due to free tickets look bored, uninterested and miserable. They are secluded from the rest of the ground like a section of special cases taped off far from other supporters and looking cold and destitute.   Most of them look as if they would rather be spending the afternoon meeting Ronald McDonald at a golden arches restaurant or colouring in a paper pizza with crayons at Pizza Hut.    Across in section D sit the flags of the Drum Beat Mafia but this group itself cannot be seen although they are heard via the constant beat of the drum its fans have became known for at games. 

Livingston's proud 10-match unbeaten run came to an end with this game as Forfar Athletic claimed an injury-time win. Andrew Halliday had levelled for the Division Three leaders after 20 minutes with an impressive run and shot but the home club could not turn their second-half pressure into goals and Stephen Tulloch snatched victory when he converted home Martin Fotheringham's free-kick.

Livingston feel like a club that have tried to achieve, briefly achieved but now find themselves facing the stark prospect of mediocrity and low crowds.  From Sturm Graz in the UEFA Cup the club have gone from this high to desperate matches that pull in 1,000 against Forfar Atheltic.   All in all the club is a 'failed project' that has no way of going forward.  A succession of owners have tried to push the club forward but they have failed miserably.   

Its not too hard to see from a trip to Livingston that they are possibly the best supported club in the league with far and away the best ground.  Livingston is modern, clean and livable and in an ideal location between Glasgow and Edinburgh.  Almondvale is a continental type ground with excellant facilities the envy of many other teams.  Unlike other Scottish grounds it feels like and looks like a ground you would maybe find in Holland or Belgium.  But that all seems pointless when 9,000 seats are empty every week and the club is permanently in meltdown.