LIVINGSTON manager David Martindale today joked that he was going to ban Scott Arfield from the Tony Macaroni Arena after watching the Rangers midfielder score against his side again.

Arfield replaced Glen Kamara in the second-half of the Ibrox club’s opening cinch Premiership game in West Lothian this afternoon when the visitors were losing 1-0.

The substitute levelled five minutes after coming on when he got on the end of a Ryan Kent cross and headed beyond goalkeeper Shamal George.

His captain James Tavernier fired a long-range free-kick into the top right corner two minutes later and Rangers ran out narrow 2-1 winners.

It was the fifth time that Arfield has hit the target against Livingston in the four years that he has spent back in Scotland and Martindale confessed that he suspected the player would make an impact. 

“The boys put everything into the game,” he said. “The gameplan was good, they executed it well and we were a wee bit unfortunate to walk away with no points to be honest.

“I think if we had picked up a point there no-one could have grudged us that. I thought for 60 minutes we were well in the game.

“Shamal (goalkeeper Goerge) pulls off a couple of decent saves and then they make the sub with wee Arfield.

“He is banned from Livingston now that boy! As soon as he came on I said: ‘We will need to watch him because his midfield runs are brilliant’.

“Honestly, he has made a career out of it. I think he only does it against Livingston though!

“I will need to try and get him signed won’t !? Just to put him on the bench or sit him on the stand so he is not playing against us.”

Martindale added: “So he goes on and does what he does. I think it is probably the first time Kent puts a ball in with his right foot.

“We got lucky on a couple of occasions, but then Kent goes on and puts that ball in. Scotty makes the run and then goal. And then Tav does what Tav does.”

Martindale admitted that Phillip Cancar was lucky not to be sent off in the first-half for the rash challenge he made on Scott Wright after he had been booked.

However, he also felt that a late Ayo Obileye goal should have stood and argued that his team could have been awarded a penalty as well. 

Asked about the Wright incident, the Livingston manager said: “I think we got lucky there, I am not going to lie. Phil says that he slid going into the challenge. But for me I think we got a wee bit lucky. We were lucky it wasn’t a double yellow.

“I spoke to the lino and he said Scott Wright probably jumps up if he is not on a yellow card originally. That is a fair point. Everybody would rather see 11 v 11 on the park at that point so fair play to the officials. They let the game go a bit.

“But Tav was on a yellow and he pulls in wee Pitts (Scott Pittman). There is also a handball from (Glen) Kamara. We also had a penalty appeal in the first-half which I think is a pen. We have one later on which I am not sure is a foul. We have the ball in the back of the net late on. I will need to have a look back.

“These are decisions which you need VAR for. But if we had VAR we might not have had our left back on the park.”