Marvin Bartley has departed Livingston as he feels he had ‘no option’ following relegation to the Championship.

Bartley took the manager role at the start of the year after moving from the assistant to manager as former boss, David Martindale stepped down to take up a role as sporting director.

Livingston announced their relegation from the Scottish Premiership as results on Saturday didn’t go their way with Kilmarnock cruising to a 3-0 win over Dundee United which now see’s Scott Arfield take charge for the final three fixtures for Livingston.

Bartley after speaking on X: “Ultimately, this decision comes following a conversation on Monday where the position that had previously been outlined to us changed considerably.

“Following the Motherwell game on 31 January, I was asked to take on the role and initially declined given the circumstances at the time.

“After further conversations, I agreed to do so based on assurances around stability and the opportunity to lead the club into next season should relegation happen.

“For that reason, it came as a major surprise to later be informed that Neil and I would need to reapply for our positions as part of a new process being introduced by the club.

“We don’t feel that the situation we agreed to take on, and the one now being presented, are the same. As a result, we feel stepping away is the right direction for us both.”

Martindale who was in charge for the first-half of the campaign in which joined the club back in 2014 and took the manager role six-years-ago, guided Livingston to the top-flight after defeating Partick Thistle in the play-offs back in 2018.

Livi spent six- years in the top division before returning to the Championship where they’d find themselves return on the first time of asking, defeating Ross County in the play-offs to return to the Premiership.

This campaign hasn’t went as planned with so far, just two wins all season which saw a win over Falkirk on matchday two with most recently, a 2-0 away win against St Mirren.

Bartley has been in charge for 11 games which of course picked up the second win of the season for the Lothian side, defeating St Mirren 2-0 in Paisley with his last game in charge being their Friday night showdown, drawing 2-2 with Aberdeen and despite the point, they were still relegated with relegation rivals, Kilmarnock picking up three points.

Bartley looks onwards in his career after a slight improvement in performances.

“We took over a group that was in an extremely difficult position with a short period of time to try and turn things around,” he added.

“While results ultimately haven’t been enough to keep the club in the division, we believe there were clear improvements in performances, competitiveness and spirit across the 11 games.”