Marvin Bartley: From Livingston Departure to Stenhousemuir Success

Marvin Bartley has not picked up the phone. Not once.

Since walking away from Livingston at the end of last season, the Stenhousemuir manager has had no contact with David Martindale, the man who moved upstairs and triggered a chain of events that pushed Bartley out the door.

On Friday night, under the BBC Scotland cameras, they meet again. This time as rivals in the Championship.

A clean break from Livingston

Back in May, Bartley and assistant Neil Hastings resigned after being told they would have to reapply for their own jobs. For a coach who had stepped up from the backroom to the dugout in January, it was a brutal jolt.

Asked if he had spoken to Martindale since, Bartley’s answer is blunt.

“No, I've not seen or spoken to Davie since leaving the football club,” he says. “He's busy, I'm busy so I've not spoken to Davie since leaving the football club.”

The separation has been total. No clearing of the air, no quiet coffee, no late-night call.

Contact with Livingston has come from elsewhere. Chairman Calvin Ford reached out with what Bartley describes as a “lovely message” after Stenhousemuir knocked Livi out of the League Cup on penalties at Ochilview. A small gesture, but one that landed.

The manner of his departure hurt. He admits it.

“At the time, I was definitely hurt in the days that followed,” the 40-year-old says. “When the situation happened, I was really, really shocked.”

Then came perspective. Conversations with people inside and outside the game chipped away at his surprise.

“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.”

The sting has faded. The lesson remains.

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

From rejection to a remarkable start

If Livingston was the setback, Stenhousemuir has become the response.

Part-time, modest budget, written off before a ball was kicked. On paper, Bartley stepped down a level when he took over from Gary Naysmith, who had just led the Warriors out of League 1 before departing for Ayr United.

On grass, the story is very different.

Stenhousemuir are unbeaten in nine matches in all competitions this season. They sit above their Championship rivals after three wins and a draw, the most recent a sharp 3-1 victory over Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

They have already negotiated a strong League Cup group campaign and dumped Premiership side Motherwell out along the way. Hearts await at Ochilview in a home quarter-final next Friday. It is a schedule that would have sounded fanciful a few months ago.

The numbers underline it. The mood around the club tells you even more.

Livingston reunion, bigger picture

Before Hearts come calling, there is the reunion. Glenn Whelan brings his Livingston side to face a manager who once wore their badge and then walked away when the ground shifted beneath him.

Livi’s start has been mixed – two wins, two defeats in the league – as they adjust to life back in the Championship. They arrive facing a Stenny team punching well above their financial weight and playing like they have no intention of easing off.

The parallels are obvious. The tension, maybe less so. Bartley insists his energy is trained entirely on the club he now leads, not the one he left behind.

His players have given him every reason to keep his gaze forward.

Dare to dream?

The Championship has seen this kind of story before. Arbroath, part-time and relentless, came within touching distance of the title five years ago, Dick Campbell’s side dragging Kilmarnock into a gripping, improbable duel.

Stenhousemuir now sit in that same unforgiving division, trying to write their own version.

Do they dare to think about a second straight promotion? About the top flight?

“Every club in the pyramid now dreams of one day being in the top flight,” Bartley says. He knows the narrative building around his team, but he refuses to be swept along by it.

“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.”

So the phone stays silent. No calls to Martindale, no looking back.

Bartley walks into Friday night not as the assistant who had to reapply for his job, but as the manager of the club at the top end of the table, with a part-time squad refusing to behave like one.

The cameras will be there for the subplots. The league will be watching for something else: whether this early-season surge is just a bright start, or the opening pages of the Championship’s next great upset.