Marvin Bartley heads back to Livingston with his Stenhousemuir side top

Marvin Bartley spent the start of May trying to salvage the unsalvageable. He was still Livingston head coach at that point, and had just led the West Lothian side to a 2-2 draw at home to Aberdeen after a 2-0 win away to St Mirren.

That was the high point of the Lions’ Scottish Premiership campaign – and it felt then that the former Hibs midfielder was nailed on to manage the club going forward after taking on the role in February.

Fast forward to now, and Bartley heads into the start of September with his side top of the Scottish Championship after four games. The catch? He’s the boss of newly-promoted part-timers Stenhousemuir.

He left Livingston after being told to apply for the job he was promised, and the 40-year-old now heads to West Lothian on Friday night with his team the table-toppers, up against a mid-table Livingston outfit.

“I didn’t see this coming,” Bartley told the Falkirk Herald. “Clearly, I had belief that myself and Neil (Hastings) could come in and make an impact, even although we arrived so late.

“It hasn’t really sunk in yet just how well we have started the season and I don’t think I will reflect on it properly probably until the season is actually finished.

"But to go nine matches unbeaten the way we have done, also knocking Motherwell out of the cup, is something a bit special. We’ve just been taking one game at time and not getting ourselves too high or too low.

“I was speaking the other day to Simon Vincent, who is is BBC Scotland’s lead producer. He was saying that he foresaw this happening and that is why our game against Livingston was picked for TV coverage.

“I’m sure you did… was what I told him! I don’t think anyone could have imagined that the table would look like this at the end of August, but what it looks like at the end of April is what really counts.

"I’ve said to the players already that what happens in the past can’t be taken away from you. But what’s coming is what is in our hands and it can all change if we don’t have that strong mindset.

“We need to keep showing that attitude. We can’t rest on our laurels. Our effort has to be 100 per cent.”

Looking ahead to Friday’s match, Bartley says that playing the recently-relegated Lions is a fixture for his players to relish.

"It is going to be a super tough game, we understand that,” the boss said. “We’re one of two part-time teams. Livingston of course lost at Arbroath last weekend but they have a brilliant head coach in Glenn Whelan.

"It’s his first management job at senior level but anyone you speak to in the game raves about his coaching and leadership. He’s top quality. We managed to beat them on penalties in the Premier Sports Cup but it was a tight match.

"It will good to be back at Livingston for sure but I am sure during the 90 minutes, I will be at loggerheads with the home bench but there is that deep respect there for the club.

"For us, it is a challenge to relish. They have a massive budget. They have 30-odd players. It is important for them to bounce back up. So they’ll want to get back to winning ways quickly.

“It’s hard to prepare to play against them because they have so many options. You don’t know exactly who is going to play. The onus for me is on what we can do and how we play out of possession.”

Bartley also confirmed that duo Matty Gillies and Andrew Shinnie are fit to be involved on Friday night, with the latter not playing last weekend against Inverness Caley Thistle. The only Stenhousemuir player missing through injury is back-up goalkeeper Curtis Lyle.