Livingston: Keeper Gary Maley earns new deal after Twitter poll joke

Livingston assistant manager David Martindale came up with the Twitter poll idea

The votes are in – nearly 200,000 of them – and Livingston goalkeeper Gary Maley’s future is now decided.

Maley has been given a new one-year contract after his future was put to a Twitter poll on Monday in a stunt that will benefit a children’s charity.

The Scottish Premiership club were stunned by the response, with assistant manager David Martindale having to backtrack on a pledge to donate £1 for every vote cast.

“My DMs have gone crazy,” said Maley.

“I wish I spoke Turkish because I am getting offered all sorts. I wish I was offered a hair transplant, but unfortunately that hasn’t come in yet.”

Maley combines his part-time role as Livingston’s third-choice keeper with a job for a civil engineering company. And when he was called to the Tony Mararoni Stadium to assess a drainage problem, a plan was hatched.

The goalkeeper said: “Davie mentioned my contract and I said, ‘Look, give it to one of the kids, I am 37, I am nearly done’. He said, ‘We will have a bit of fun with it, we will put up a vote on Twitter’.

“Davie said he would put a pound in per vote for charity, thinking we would get 500 votes. Obviously it escalated something ridiculous and Davie soon withdrew that offer.”

Maley, who only entered professional football at age 33 and has been part of Livingston’s rise from the third tier to the top flight, has pledged to donate his next two months’ wages to charity, with Martindale matching that sum.

“It is all for a good cause. It is for the John O’Byrne Foundation, which helps really ill children,” Maley added.

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