Unlike some of his contemporaries, I’ve rarely heard David Martindale reach for trite excuses when his team has been turned over by Celtic.

Of all the champions’ SPFL rivals, his admirable Livingston side has been the most consistently tough opponent, especially at Almondvale.

It’s only been this season that Celtic, under the adroit coaching of Ange Postecoglou, appear finally to have got the measure of Livingston. Although given their excellent form elsewhere in this league they still face the prospect of a second visit to their infernal plastic pitch after the split.

Martindale is a colourful and compelling presence in the Scottish game and, if his side reaches the top six this season, he would be a deserving winner of the manager of the year no matter how many trophies Celtic might lift. Having turned his life around after a four-year stretch in prison for drugs and money-laundering offences, what he’s achieved at Livingston is even more praiseworthy.

His is an authentic tale of personal redemption, made even more commendable by the fact that he’s never sought to whitewash his past. Instead, he has permitted it to be used as an example to other men and women who have taken a wrong turn in their lives. His tale offers them hope that they can still make something of themselves and it should resonate with some of our supporters. I like him a lot.

Some fans took exception to his pre-match comments last week that, if the league were to be decided on a points-per-pound basis, Livingston would be champions. His point was well made, though, and delivered in a typically robust and tongue-in-cheek manner.

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It added a bit of salt to a fixture that, on paper at least, looked to be a foregone conclusion. It may even have drawn out a few more Celtic supporters who might otherwise have chosen to give this game on a wet February night a miss.

Martindale doesn’t need me to tell him that – even if all Scottish teams started the season on a level financial footing and with an even spread of talent – that the honours would be decided on the ability of the managers. Those able to coax the best performances from their players by a mixture of good coaching, man-management and personal inspiration would meet with the greatest success.  

And if you applied all of these factors to Postecoglou’s reign, Celtic would probably still emerge top of the pile. The way that he has improved players such as Anthony Ralston, Greg Taylor and rejuvenated others such as Callum McGregor and Liel Abada has been thrilling. Aaron Mooy, who cost nothing, is currently Scotland’s most outstanding player. Along with McGregor and Kyogo Furuhashi, he will be among the favourites to be crowned Scotland’s player of the year.

Celtic had four players competing at the World Cup. Perhaps they would have been chosen to represent their countries even if they hadn’t played for the Hoops. Each of them, though, would admit that the improvements in their performances under Postecoglou played a significant part in their call-ups.

Prior to the Livingston game, the manager offered a few gnarly verbal ripostes of his own to some noise about being lucky on account of the money he’s been able to access for purchases. Postecoglou could have pointed out that Celtic, after acquisitions and sales had been factored in, had accrued only a modest net spend before the sale of Josip Juranovic. Indeed, the profits banked for the Croatian more or less covered the cost of all three January arrivals and put Postecoglou’s spending back in the black.

Celtic Way:

Instead, he decided to own the truth that Celtic are indeed Scotland’s richest and largest club – but only because it’s been honestly earned and paid for by supporters who like what they see on the pitch.

“I actually don’t mind people saying we have the biggest budget because we have the biggest fan base and we are the biggest club,” Postecoglou said. “People forget that that money is on the back of hard-earned supporters who don’t have a lot of money and choose to spend a significant portion of it on this football club.

“My role is not to get their money and stick it in the bank. It’s to get their money and reinvest it in the thing they love. That’s my responsibility and why we do what we do. If people are saying we are the biggest club in the land, then I don’t think that’s something we need to be embarrassed about. That’s who we are.”

Nor is it a given that Celtic are always guaranteed to play in front of massive audiences which give them access to more money. In the last few years of the first nine-in-a-row, their average home attendance was somewhere in the region of between 25,000 and 30,000. It wasn’t very long ago that Celtic were closing the top tier of Parkhead.

Postecoglou’s main aim is to build a squad that can win games in the Champions League and compete meaningfully for a place in the knockout stages of that competition.

Each time they reach the Champions League it guarantees a solidarity dividend of more than £200,000 for each of their SPFL rivals. For clubs like Livingston, a sum like that can help them maintain their top-league status.

There’s another more important and pleasing factor of Celtic’s status as Scotland’s largest and richest club. Since the dawn of this century and the arrival of Martin O’Neill, Celtic have won 16 league titles,10 Scottish Cups and nine League Cups. All of them were won without the aid of any artificial financial stimulus.

Any sporting advantage they have enjoyed stems directly from the cash provided by a support who are still largely drawn from working-class communities. All the bills have been paid and the source of every penny earned can be scrutinised on publicly-available accounts.

What’s more: under Fergus McCann’s stewardship Celtic willingly underwent a barren period in the 1990s so that they could meet all of their financial obligations as they fell due. Any player purchases had to be made on the basis that they wouldn’t jeopardise the long-term sustainability of the club.

Certainly, it helps to have a winning team on the park if you want consistently to attract an audience of 50,000-plus every other week. But just as crucial is the confidence and trust that supporters have that their money is accounted for and that they know where every penny of it is going.

I’ve sensed in recent years that the bonds which tie Celtic and the fans together have been strengthened; much of this is due to Postecoglou’s understanding of the social challenges which face many in the support.

But don’t forget that the foundations were laid by the honesty and integrity of McCann in refusing to sacrifice Celtic’s clean reputation in exchange for a few cups and titles.