Wait may be over for Phil Cave

Oct 23 2008 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

AN injury to left-back Jason Talbot could pave the way into the Livingston first-team for summer capture Phil Cave.

And the speedy 21-year-old could also have his eye on Dave Mackay’s spot-kick duties.

Cave, who came through the youth ranks at Newcastle United, boasted a 100% record from the spot for Gateshead last season, but for now he is purely focussed on breaking into the Livingston starting line-up.

“I knew that Livingston had a left-back when I joined and Jason has done really well,” he admitted.

“Competition for places is healthy, and all I can do is try and get into the team, do my best and take my chance if it comes.

“I was with Gateshead last season where we had a decent team. I managed to score 11 goals and I was on penalties, and I scored seven out of seven in the league.

“It was great to be playing first-team football and picking up points as it was something I didn’t see a lot of at Newcastle.

“At St James Park I came through a decent age group with guys like Matty Paterson and Carl Finnegan.

“My time there set me up for the future, but there was no way I could get into the team with players of the calibre of Kieron Dyer, Craig Bellamy and Lauren Robert ahead of me.

“I could have stayed at the club and carried on getting contracts but I would never have improved or progressed, so I decided to move on.”

Cave was first linked with a switch to Almondvale last season under former boss Mark Proctor and the youngster admits he was close to a move.

He said: “The move to Livingston was on the cards for a while after I had been watched in a game against Sunderland in the Durham Cup.

“I had a call from an agent saying Mark Proctor was interested in bringing me up to Scotland.

“Obviously Mark moved on but Roberto followed up in the interest and I’m delighted to be in West Lothian.

“I’m really enjoying it here at Livingston. I’m staying in the town right beside the training ground so it’s perfect for me.”

After two years of relegation struggles for Livingston the Lions were not tipped among any of the title favourites but Cave reckons there is no reason they can’t go all the way to the SPL.

He added: “When I joined I could see the quality of the squad in training but you never know how quickly a team will gel until the season starts.

“We have been playing really well and I don’t see any reason why we can’t get up to the SPL.

“It is important that we keep focused and don’t get ahead of ourselves.

“We started so well and maybe we needed to lose a couple of games to get us going again.”