Livi v Killie

Expect we'll see a more attacking line up than against Celtic, with Bradley and St Kelly returning to start the game, prob have Nouble on the bench again but gives us a great sub to bring on 2nd half, bursting to see him linking up with Anderson so hopefully it isn't Bruce coming off when Noubs comes on.

Lets get back to business and give Killie a doing, 4-0 Livi.

El Plastico….

Tight games between the teams this season despite the healthy gap in points. I expect more of the same… 4 goals in one game so soon after a recent 4-2 & 3-1 ? Not a chance. If we win it will be by a single goal & more likely is a dreich 0-0 or a slightly more entertaining 1-1.

Hopefully Noubs Kelly and Bradley start this game.Celtic game should be out of their heads by now and the Lions can give their full concentration on Killie.Theyl be boosted by their result the other night against an albeit poor Arabs.But hopefully we're a different proposition for them and get at them from the off.A point wouldn't be a disaster imo but if we've any aspirations of top six then these are the games we have to take maximum points from and I fully expect them to do so.Mon the Lions..

Hopefully Noubs Kelly and Bradley start this game.Celtic game should be out of their heads by now and the Lions can give their full concentration on Killie.Theyl be boosted by their result the other night against an albeit poor Arabs.But hopefully we're a different proposition for them and get at them from the off.A point wouldn't be a disaster imo but if we've any aspirations of top six then these are the games we have to take maximum points from and I fully expect them to do so.Mon the Lions..

Doubly confident Troy.

Doesn't happen too oftenL/F..But in this instance I'm letting over confidence get the better of me.Now best go and prepare the obligatory obituary
Lol.

I think Kilmarnock are a better team than their recent league position suggests. They will be stiff opposition today. Here's hoping our guys show what they are capable of and that VAR is on our side.

orco wrote:I think Kilmarnock are a better team than their recent league position suggests. They will be stiff opposition today. Here's hoping our guys show what they are capable of and that VAR is on our side.

At home they are hard to beat (Celtic, Us and Sevco are the only teams to beat them at Rugby Park this season), away from home not so much, 21 pts at home and only 2 pts away from Rugby Park.

Thought my 4-0 prediction was good VFM at HT, we dug in and saw the game out well after they got a goal back though and fantastic win to get us back up to 4th place.

Nouble was immense, brilliant to see him back, gives us so much more threat up front and did some great back tracking mopping up a few Killie attacks. Looking forward to seeing our goals again on Sportscene, Anderson and Kelly's were crackers.

Actually predicted on another forum 3 1 to the Lions..On the game itself.Was it the proverbial game of two half's, il let you guys decide .Sucker punch right at the start of the second half caught us out. They had so many players in the 18 yard box,we panicked and payed the price.Thankfully didn't affect the result.As far as the end result was concerned, when Bruce followed by Joel went off,I sussed the tactics from Davie to hold on to what we had when they were pressing to get back into the game.The subs took away the threat we had up front imo.The inane drivel should be ignored fwitsw.We won and thats all that matters, and the Hibbees doing us a favour as well.Back up to 4th and despite my disbelief there's still a chance to something special this season.Mon the Lions..

Yeah, first half we were so much on top we really should have had more than 3 goals. We were wiping the floor with them and they simply couldn’t handle it. Nouble’s goal was an easy one but the work in leading up to it was good, the second & third goals were peaches, both in build up & in execution.

Then came half time and the usual cup of Horlicks for the players. Killie came out the traps much better in the second half and were rewarded for getting stuck in when they bundled in their goal… Shamal had made a decent stop but our defence stood about while about 40 million (exaggeration for effect) Killie players had a go at knocking the loose ball in. That gave them a lift and we had to weather 5 or 10 mins of them doing to us what we had done to them in the first half by harassing & forcing errors & turn-overs. Thankfully, we re-grouped & composed ourselves again but the rest of the half was much more of what I’d exepected, a tight match, albeit more entertaining than I’d suggested it would be.

In the end we were worthy winners but mainly based on blowing them away in the first half.

What was extremely frustrating was the ref allowing them to get away with shirt pulling, pushing, shoving & other obvious foul play while we were being penalised for less. Typically inept refereeing.

I remember Neilson's Hearts blowing teams away in the first half all season and winning the Championship at a canter, it's difficult to keep that relentless pressure up for 90 mins though, even Celtic took their foot off the gas a bit after doing the same to us midweek. It would have been nicer if we scored a 4th in the first half right enough.

We shouldn't have conceded their goal though, as Nick said Shamal made a couple of saves and our defence stood about not getting onto the ball when it came to them 3 times to have goes at trying to score, till they finally did.

I actually thought our substitutions were well made, when players were fading, Montano and then Nouble, and Anderson does a power of work chasing about between opposition CB's. And we saw out the game quite comfortably towards the end, getting the ball up into their half. We in particular needed either Omeonga or Holt coming on in midfield to give us some dig.

When I saw our starting xi I thought it was a bit adventurous for DM but I’d love for us to blow teams away like that every time. Just wish we’d come out in the second half in the same way but we almost always come out half asleep.

We did the same to Aberdeen in the first half with them and nearly blew it after the break. Strange.

If you listen to DM’s post match interview… it sounds very much like the half time team talk was about being more controlled in possession as he felt we were leaving ourselves exposed to the counter attack. Which to be fair is an accurate assessment of the first half. Killie did counter attack but (and he also admits this) we were coping with it. So the question then is, why change what is working? The answer to that is to minimise the risks but in both the Aberdeen & Killie games we conceded early in the second half, which indicates either a lack of concentration caused by the change of message or an uncertainty about the approach to the second half causing a tentative start.

It still begs the question of “why change what is working?”

In the end no harm done as we won both games but it would be easier on the old ticker if we continued to impose our already established superiority.

The first halves v Aberdeen and Killie were divine. I feared for us when that early 2nd half goal went in. It changed the game a bit. Davie might have got them to change things but I'm sure Derek McInnes's half time talk made a difference too. Davie probably (hopefully) anticipated this and gave instructions accordingly.

Said he kept Nouble on a bit longer than intended because they scored.