Livingston boss David Martindale has paid Ange Postecoglou the ultimate compliment as his side prepare for the visit to Celtic Park on Wednesday evening.

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Both sides have already met each other once this season as the Hoops ran out 3-0 victors at the Tony Macaroni Arena as Kyogo, Greg Taylor and Jota got on the scoreline.

It has been a stadium which the league leaders have struggled at in recent years but it now looks as though the hoodoo is gone after back-to-back victories there.

Livingston are always a tough opposition but Martindale has admitted that he thinks there will be an extra ‘intensity’ from Postecoglou’s side going into the match on Wednesday evening.

Celtic returned to domestic action at the weekend as they retained their nine point lead at the top of the SPFL Premiership with a late Callum McGregor strike and will be hoping to put in another dominating performance in front of the Parkhead crowd.

“I think you are going into those games and you are not a surprise anymore. The Celtic team, the Celtic manager, are going into our game in a bit more detail,” said Martindale speaking to Sky Sports.

“I think Ange has said he doesn’t take any game, any different from another. But I have found Celtic players with a wee bit more intensity, they are giving us a little more respect and by giving us a little bit more respect it’s probably adding to their own game. They are putting a lot more detail into the game.

“It’s brilliant for the staff and players at the club. It’s a difficult job, everyone thinks it’s easy sitting in a certain type of shape. I’ve gone to Ibrox, Parkhead and played wingers, 4-3-3 and attacking central midfielders. You fall into a low block because they have that much possession.

“You only need to look back to the Real Madrid game, the first 60 minutes they had Madrid sitting in a nearly, middle to low block. It shows how dominating they are in games of football. We’re more than capable of getting points from these games. We are very competitive and we will go there and have a gameplan and try and take something from the game.”

The Scottish champions will be hoping for a much more competitive contest than the match against Aberdeen as Jim Goodwin’s side sat in deep and tried to frustrate the Hoops but got what they deserved at the end.

Both gaffers have now came up against each other a number of times but Martindale was full of praise for the job Postecoglou has done since arriving in Scotland last summer.

“I think Ange did an incredible job to win the league last year but I think he has kicked on again this year. I look at managers, how do you judge them? You judge them on performances but you also judge them on do they make players better? And I can look at Celtic, hand on heart, and there’s not a player in that building he has not improved. I think he has done a fantastic job with them.

“He has got one of the best midfielders in the country in Callum McGregor returning to form, it’s going to be a difficult game.”