Livingston’s Stephane Omeonga relishing trip to former club Hibernian

Stephane Omeonga admits the return to Easter Road on Saturday is the fixture he has relished since becoming a Livingston player.

The 25-year-old Belgian midfielder enjoyed loan spells with Hibernian in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons and returned to the cinch Premiership with Livi from Serie C side Pescara last August on a two-year deal.

Omeonga, who played in the 1-0 win against Hibs at the Tony Macaroni arena in December, recalled his enjoyable time in Leith as a learning experience.

He said: “The first thing I thought about when I first signed here is my first game back at Easter Road to be honest so I am buzzing.

“Obviously that was my first experience of Scottish football so I toughened up a little bit.

“It is a big club, there is a lot of pressure and you learn to deal with the pressure and the fans and stuff like that.

“I enjoyed my time. It was not easy every day but I would do it again.”

While contrasting life at Hibs and Livingston, who currently sit ninth in the table, Omeonga stressed the importance of standards at both clubs.

He said: “It is different from Hibs, it is a smaller club. It is like a family and the atmosphere, the  boys, the staff are good, Marv (Marvin Bartley, assistant manager) adds a lot and the gaffer is good with me. I love it.

“There is the family side of the club but the standards are still really high.

“The gaffer, the staff and everybody at the club expects you to act like a professional because we are. So the standards are really high and I think that is the key to success.

“We need to keep doing what we have been doing as a team.

“It was quite tough when I first came as we were bottom of the table, now we are chasing upwards.

“When you look at the table we are in a relegation battle, but we have to aim for something more, keep doing what we have been doing, keep taking one game at a time and see what comes up.”