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LIONS COACH IS LOVING LIFE AT LIVI - AND REVEALS HIS SECRET COMRADE WHEN IT COMES TO MIDWEEK SCOUTING SESSIONS 06:00, 01 Jun 2025 Brian Rice jets off to Italy on his honeymoon this afternoon

having helped navigate Livingston back in among the high fliers of Scottish football. After a frenetic season culminated in a dramatic play-off win over Ross County it’s chill out time with

wife Kirsteen. A chance to indulge in the finer things in life, to relax on the Adriatic coast’s beautiful white beaches and to marvel at Rimini’s stunning scenery. Inevitably though, the

conversation will still turn to football. It’s what brought the couple together. A match made in heaven? Alloa to be exact. And, for Rice, it’s perfect. “We’re away on Sunday,” he says with

a broad smile. “Rimini for 12 nights, it’s chill out time. Article continues below “We’ve been together three years, got married a few months back in front of five people. Kenny Brannigan

was my best man. “Alloa brought us together. We met when I was managing there. Kirsteen was helping out with the food. “She loves football. She's been at every single game this season.

“She goes to all the mid-week games with me as well. Scouting trips and everything. She loves it. She knows what she’s talking about. “So it’s off to Italy now. I’ve been before .. but only

to play football.” Of course it was to play football. It’s the perfect link into the story of a man who left school to join Hibs as a YTS and could never have dreamed of where the journey

would take him. The new Mrs Rice isn’t the first great partnership he’s made in the game. Right now he’s part of a trio of footballing brains who have guided Livi back to the big time as

well as lifting the SPFL Trust Trophy alongside David Martindale and Neil Hastings. His years as John Hughes’ sidekick at Falkirk, Hibs and Inverness are legendary. And long before then he

was the big slip of a playmaker known simply as ‘Scotsman’ to one of football’s most charismatic and successful bosses. Brian Clough. One word to describe each of those managers? Rice thinks

hard: “Clough: Genius. Davie: Under-rated. Yogi…Perfectionist. “But all three of them: passionate.” He’s 61 now but Rice is as full of enthusiasm for the game as the youngster that left

HIbs to sign for Forest in 1985 at just 21. Before packing for his honeymoon, he sat down with _Mail Sport_ this week to reflect on it all. He said: “That last trip to Italy was with

Nottingham Forest when we went to play a summer tournament in Perugia. “We played against Perugia, Cologne and Roma and some fantastic players. Rudi Voller, Junior, the Brazilian, Pierre

Littbarski. “But we won. The manager never liked to lose even in pre-season. “As a person, Brian Clough shaped me. His discipline, the way he treated people, the respect he had for people.

Massive family man. “Wanted us to be big family men as well. He was big on that, big on being a team. “He didn't like individual players.. apart from John Robertson. He could do

anything he wanted he was so good. “Coaching? There was no coaching! We did the same training every single day for six years. “People don't believe me. We never played 11 v 11, no set

plays or shape, no defensive drills, or attacking drills, we never used big goals. “We just warmed up, into two teams, played seven and eight a side trying to score into hockey goals,

everything below head height, kicking hell out of one another. “Players like Stuart Pearce, Neil Webb, Garry Birtles, Johnny Method, John Robertson, Roy Keane, Steve Hodge! “Clough’s secret?

Play your position and get good players. Him and Peter Taylor identified players, fitted into how they wanted to play, it was simple. “You’d never get away with it now. I see so many robots

now, coaches as robots: ‘Do this and this’. Football is about using your brain and how quick is your decision compared to your opponent’s. “What we did was simple but effective. There were

certain rules. Don't pass back if you don't have to - and cross to the front post. “One Saturday I hit about three crosses to the back post in the first half. The gaffer never

missed me at half time. “Second half, my first cross was overhit to the back post again. The boards went up, ‘Scotsman, off!’ “The next game he started me against Aston Villa as a striker.

“I’d never played there in my life. I was against Paul McGrath and Derek Mountfield, two giants who kicked the hell out of me. “We won 1-0 but I never touched the ball “We came off the

pitch, went up the stairs into the dressing room. I walked through the door and he was lying in the bath already with a bottle of beer! “He said: ‘well Scotsman, did you learn anything

tonight?’ “I went, ‘aye, gaffer, f*****g cross to that front post!’ “He was brilliant. I grew up watching Brian Clough on a Wednesday night. Sports Night. Sitting with my gran. He was TV

gold. “A few years later I’m signing for him. Archie Gemmill picked me up in the morning. He took me into the office and said, ‘I’ve got the Scotsman’. “The gaffer was writing something so

his head was down. My heart was pounding. “In those days my red hair had a side shed. He just looked up and went ‘f**k me it’s Steve Davis’. “We just had a brilliant relationship.” The best

part of four decades later Rice is now that wise old head passing on his wisdom from a life spent in football. If there’s one word to describe him, it’s knowledgable. Rice reckons “lazy”

critics don’t have a clue when they take aim at Livingston’s brand of football. And the Lions coach insists David Martindale has rammed their jibes back down their throats after guiding the

club back to the Premiership after a summer rethink. He said: “It's lazy people. You get tarnished. “But that's people that don't get off their backsides and go and watch.

Don't do their research. “We were very much under the radar this year. Falkirk had such a good season, such a good team, attacking team. “Rightly so, they were getting all the

positives. Everybody was raving about them. They won the league because they were the best team. “But we were very, very close. “I can't really remember three games that we just played

long. We tried to play all the time. “I’ve seen all the things on social media. I just sit and laugh. “These people haven't got a clue. They don't go and watch the game. “Go and

ask any other manager in the Championship about Livingston’s style of play.” Rice reckons Martindale will look back on this season with a huge sense of pride. He said: “I’d think this season

means more than anything else he's achieved with Livingston. “He changed the full style because the Championship allows you to do that. “We had a look at it and the gaffer decided that

he wanted to play a possession-based game where we could dominate the ball. The Premiership doesn't allow you to do that every week. “In the Championship, you can coach to win every

single week. You know you've got a chance of winning every week. “Davie will look back at this with great pride, his own work and the way the boys adapted to the system. “Everything

changed, the way we trained. And I think it needed that. “He's good at identifying things and seeing what needs to be changed.” Livi roared back from 3-1 down on aggregate to beat Ross

County 5-3 in Dingwall on Monday night. And Rice said: “At first it was relief. Then it was enjoyment, coming back on the bus and waking up the next day and taking the dog out, people

stopping me in the street.. it's a wee bit bigger than I thought.” While Rice and Martindale bask in the glow of a promotion and cup winning campaign, his former colleague Hughes

remains out of the game. Yogi hasn’t managed since leaving Dunfermline three years ago. And Rice reckons that's a massive waste of talent. He said: “Taking Brendan Rodgers out the

equation, tell me anyone else in Scotland with the CV Yogi has got. HIs CV stands up to anybody. “He got Falkirk into the Premier League. Kept them there. Got to the 2009 Scottish Cup final

and into Europe. “He brought players through. Got players in from the Premier League on loan, Kasper Schmeichel, Tim Krul, Anthony Stokes. “He then won the Scottish Cup with Inverness.

“Yogi’s enthusiasm is incredible. People just look at him as this big centre half but they have not go an idea about his football knowledge. How he sees the game, how he wants it played. “He

took a lot of his ideas from Tommy Burns at Celtic. He’d written down sessions Tommy had put on. “He demands perfection and doesn’t accept short cuts. He knows the dangers of short cuts.

Article continues below “I cannot understand how someone with his CV hasn’t got a job.”