Airdrie v Livi

Cadden is a cert to score, that should even up Beany's goal. Don't think we did any long throw ins against Stranraer, though both Halkett and Lithgow have it in their armoury (apparently Airdrie are dodgy defending them).

I still don't see why Mullen is leading the line and being picked over Buchanan, Buchanan will score 20+ goals easy in this league, Mullen wont, so why the feck isn't Buchanan starting, crazy!
Would start Watt too, both him and Buchanan did enough coming on as subs to deserve starts.

This will be a tougher game than our last one, we weren't up against any pacey players playing Stranraer, don't think Neill would do well against Beany so hope Halkett is back from suspension. Should be a good game with plenty goals, looking forward to it.

Really, really looking forward to this game now, especially after the result at the weekend. Airdrie are a bit of an unknown quantity in a certain regard, given that they're a FT team but the majority of their squad comprises younger players, probably not too dissimilar from us in that sense. Undoubtedly, they have pedigree up front with Iain Russell, who I will admit right now I am extremely jealous is with Airdrie and not with us. Absolute certainty he will score a barrowload this season, and also a total given he will score against us. I'm just hoping that the apparent cohesion in attack from last weekend is continued in this one and we can really take control of proceedings early on here. I've been impressed with Watt every time I've seen him but can't comment on last Saturday, would like to see him getting a start especially in a game like this where his pressing and tenacity could be key.

Reckon there'll be goals here so will confidently plump for 4-2, FG 18 mins.

Watt came on and set Buchanan up for his 2nd goal, battled with a couple of defenders, held onto the ball and put it right onto the path of Buchanan for an easy goal. Then he hit the bar which fell for Pittman's 2nd goal. He didn't get much game time but had a huge impact on the game. As did Buchanan.

Pittman was superb for us too, would like to see Watt and Pittman starting as attacking midfielders against Airdrie. We seem to be favouring 5 in midfield, Buchanan dropped into midfield when he came on until Mullen was subbed, then moved up front, so can't see us going 2 up front.

Be prepared for a bump, Airdrie will be no mugs.

Is it this season's Airdrie that struggle to defend long throws or last season's Airdrie (i.e. Lithgow & Crighton)?

Home advantage to edge it
Air 2 Liv 1
FG 25 mins

This season's Airdrie, according to their fans on P&B they can't defend set pieces. Crighton and Lithgow are good in the air which will also give them problems defending set pieces against their former players. Cadden is also excellent at set piece deliveries which should make things interesting.

Love this from Callum Carson:

Callum Carson wrote:On the basis that everyone always scores against their former team, I'm going for a 4-2 Livi win on Saturday...

For me I think it will be 3-1 to Livi with the first goal on the 50th minute

2-2, FG 28 mins.

Left my prediction for a few days to let my unbridled optimism calm down a bit after our emphatic win against Stranraer but it hasn't made any difference. I'm still very confident of a big win here and have a good feeling about this game.

4-1 Livi, with Cadden and Watt scoring some of them, fg 12 mins.

And if Mullen starts we'll get a few set pieces to test out the Airdrie dodgy defence in the air, maybe Crighton will score with a header.

Iain Russell will get the MOTM award following a dive to win a penalty, convert the resulting penalty and skipping past Crighton and Lithgow for the second goal.

2-0 Airdrie. FG 22 mins.

Tough one to call tommorow although confidence should surely be high after last weeks result.Think Beany has to remember its a different Livi hes facing this season as opposed to last season although ive heard he,s a doubt for tommorow due to injury.This should hopefully give us a wee indication as to how we are going to fare this season although i realise its early doors getting points on the the board this early will stand us in good steadfor the future.Any ways il be at New Broomfield to cheer the lads on to hopefully 3 points on the board.Do it Livi!!!

That would be my starting 11, although it's 4-4-1-1 with Pittman playing in behind Buchanan.

Liviforever wrote:

That would be my starting 11, although it's 4-4-1-1 with Pittman playing in behind Buchanan.

No way will Hopkin drop Miller.

Doubt he'll drop Mullen either but it's the team i'd go for, one can but hope.

Miller has done well, Watt is more attacking but without Miller we'd need someone else to be defensive mid, Mullen's wonder goal versus Buchanan's 2 in 20 mins is an interesting conundrum; I'd probably go for Buchanan

Bertie Bassett wrote:Miller has done well, Watt is more attacking but without Miller we'd need someone else to be defensive mid, Mullen's wonder goal versus Buchanan's 2 in 20 mins is an interesting conundrum; I'd probably go for Buchanan

Yeah Byrne, we'd still have Pittman on as an attacking midfielder if both Mullen and Buchanan played so don't see why Wattt can't be on when we've only one up front, don't need two holding midfielders.

I'm amazed Danny Mullen gets the stick he does, for a young talented player.

Didn't expect that starting line up, both Buchanan and Mullen playing but Mullin was dropped to the bench, which only gave us Cadden on the wing. Pittman was playing further forward than Buchanan for most of the game too and looked more like he was the striker partnering Mullen.

Anyway it kinda worked as we were 2 up first half and both goals scored by our official strikers, Mullen and Buchanan. Still felt we'd have done better with Mullin and Cadden playing but one went off as the other came on and he got our 4th goal to make certain of the points.

This game played out much the same as last week, up 2 goals and then looked lethargic in the 2nd half until Airdrie hit us with a sucker punch from a boot up the pitch and only one defender back leaving us one on one with Ryan getting the better of him sticking it past Kelly. We go 2 ahead again and look comfortable then lose another to make it nervy again. We should've had it sewn up a couple of times before Buchanan finally squared it for Mullin to score, we had 2 other chances to do that but didn't pass and lost the ball.

Great 3 points though and entertaining listening to some of the Airdrie boys losing the plot over Mullen going down as much as Beany, and swearing at the ref and lino, quality.

A hard fought victory for the lions today i felt,made more uneasy by the defensive lapses that allowed Airdrie back into the game.Thought Pitman had a good game and Buchs and Danny ran their preverbial socks off.Beany went down just about every time one of ours went near him.No change there then.Game should have been wrapped up by half time,think we need to learn how to kill teams off by being more ruthless when we are so far on top of them.Anyways another 3 valueable points on the board and for that the boys fully merit any plaudits coming their way even this early in the season.100% so far speaks for itself well done lads.Oh and on a footnote.Anyone thinking of venturing into the Airdrie supporters bar next time we are through there id think again .Im no cheapskate but 2 cans of cola and a can of beer cost me £6.60p.An utter rip off in my book and then they have the audacity to charge £16 to get in to a league 1 match.They should have a word with themselves and the fact that i am commenting on this probably shows a reluctance to go back there as much as i want to support the efforts of our boys wherever.Well done Livi keep it up!!!

Pies were rotten too, one of the lads I was with put his pie down under his seat after having a bite out of it, glad I didn't get one.

The most pleasing thing about our games so far is the options we have, and they are all working. Got a very strong bench this season too.

Don't think we are quite there yet with our performances but scoring 9 goals and not even being at our best is a good thing. The fact we are scoring so many goals and still needing to work on things is very promising for when we finally get everything going.

We're very good in patches and are banging in the goals but you can see we could get even better. Also great seeing so many different players scoring.

Liviforever wrote:Left my prediction for a few days to let my unbridled optimism calm down a bit after our emphatic win against Stranraer but it hasn't made any difference. I'm still very confident of a big win here and have a good feeling about this game.

4-1 Livi, with Cadden and Watt scoring some of them, fg 12 mins.

And if Mullen starts we'll get a few set pieces to test out the Airdrie dodgy defence in the air, maybe Crighton will score with a header.

Damn, a minute out with the fg and a goal out with the score.

That wasn't as easy as the score line suggests. Airdrie played some good football and dominated parts of the game. However we got the goals and that's what counts though it was a nail-biting end until Mullin scored the fourth in injury time. A big difference from last season where we got our first point after 4 games and took 8 games to get another three.

Liviforever wrote:Didn't expect that starting line up, both Buchanan and Mullen playing but Mullin was dropped to the bench, which only gave us Cadden on the wing. Pittman was playing further forward than Buchanan for most of the game too and looked more like he was the striker partnering Mullen.

Anyway it kinda worked as we were 2 up first half and both goals scored by our official strikers, Mullen and Buchanan. Still felt we'd have done better with Mullin and Cadden playing but one went off as the other came on and he got our 4th goal to make certain of the points.

This game played out much the same as last week, up 2 goals and then looked lethargic in the 2nd half until Airdrie hit us with a sucker punch from a boot up the pitch and only one defender back leaving us one on one with Ryan getting the better of him sticking it past Kelly. We go 2 ahead again and look comfortable then lose another to make it nervy again. We should've had it sewn up a couple of times before Buchanan finally squared it for Mullin to score, we had 2 other chances to do that but didn't pass and lost the ball.

Great 3 points though and entertaining listening to some of the Airdrie boys losing the plot over Mullen going down as much as Beany, and swearing at the ref and lino, quality.

It was Mullen, mate. Buchanan was an option in the middle but he played to the better placed Mullin.

That apart I think you summed it up pretty well.

On our earlier conversation, Byrne tends to go forward more than Miller.... That said Miller did brilliantly to force the OG.

I thought Pittman was a stand out again, Miller not far behind. Buchanan showed some brilliant touches, but sometime tried to do too much on his own at times. Mullen showed good opportunism to follow up someone else's shot (was it Pittman?) for the opener. Pittman's second half header off the bar would probably have gone in on a grass pitch, brilliant move to create the chance. Airdrie pretty well scored on their only real chances of the game, they were disappointing. I thought we should have defended better for both goals conceded but if we are going to score plenty then I don't mind losing 1 or 2 goals but clean sheets would be nice. Longridge also did well.

Back to Mullen, better from him today, especially in the way he set up the fourth goal but (and this is why he gets stick EL) he still falls over too often for minor touches from his marker. A minute or two before the 4th is a case in point, he tried to get a foul to kill time but went to ground with barely a touch.

I think we look better with 2 wide players but it is hard to complain after another good win.

orco wrote:That wasn't as easy as the score line suggests. Airdrie played some good football and dominated parts of the game. However we got the goals and that's what counts though it was a nail-biting end until Mullin scored the fourth in injury time. A big difference from last season where we got our first point after 4 games and took 8 games to get another three.

Disagree with you, we made hard work of it by gifting them 2 goals, but most of the time we played them off the park. We ripped them apart 2 or 3 times each time we had a 2 goal advantage but failed to score, a goal on any one of those occasions and we'd have been out of sight.

Bertie Bassett wrote:

Disagree with you, we made hard work of it by gifting them 2 goals, but most of the time we played them off the park. We ripped them apart 2 or 3 times each time we had a 2 goal advantage but failed to score, a goal on any one of those occasions and we'd have been out of sight.

I take you were quite relaxed then watching that last 25 minutes at 3-2