Pre Season Games

First up Hearts on Saturday, looking forward to it.

Not seen anything on a new keeper so will either be GM in goal or perhaps a trialist, getting a bit concerned we've not got a first choice keeper signed yet.

Apart from that i'm pretty upbeat on the players we have, tough game to start with but it'll be a good run out to get the cobwebs dusted off, expecting Hearts to win but our central defence is good so I don't see us losing by as many as we did in our first pre season game last season when Dunfermline stuck 5 past us.

Hearts were in relegation form at the end of last season, it remains to be seen whether Cathro can turn the ship around

A trialist in goal it is then. A poster on P&B saying it is  Łukasz Skowron, a Polish keeper.

'Keeper looks half-decent, although it's always difficult to judge from these "highlight" videos. Seems like he has a good sense of awareness and isn't afraid to come off his line to meet the striker.

I'm sure someone on here can fill me in with how Saturday goes, I'm sorry, but £15 for the first friendly of the season is a bit steep for me. Going to head along to Killie and the Partick game but that'll be it.

£15 for friendlies is ridiculous. Attendance at friendlies is going to be low enough without having prices like that.

Looked good at shot stopping, committing himself to getting down to the ball at players feet, kicking, and even punching the ball clear. Didn't see any footage of corners or free kicks where the ball is put in high with players crowded in the box waiting for a header though, that is where Gary Maley is weak.

Main points I look at in keepers are:

Saving/shot stopping (obv should be a given they can do that).

Decision making when coming for a ball, and being good at taking high balls.

Kicking/kicking under pressure from on rushing players.

Łukasz Skowron looked good at 2 of those, will have to see on Saturday how he handles crosses into the box. But from the footage he doesn't look shy at coming for the ball so i'm optimistic he'll be the same when a cross comes in.

LiviLion wrote:£15 for friendlies is ridiculous. Attendance at friendlies is going to be low enough without having prices like that.

Hearts normally bring a good crowd through, a lot more than Hibs too, so expecting a decent crowd on Sat, prob more than we've had all last season. Agree though, a tenner should've been the PaTG price for this. Would be interested to see what Hearts charge for their other friendlies and if it is because we're playing teams from higher divisions that this £15 price is being set, noticed the Sunderland game is also £15.

Wouldn't be so sure, they don't like Cathro, admittedly they didn't like Neilson either but at least he had them winning fairly regularly.

50/50 split with the gate money for the Hearts game, lets hope Hearts bring through a few thousand fans. http://livingstonfc.co.uk/hearts-coming-town-tomorrow/

Lively down at the club today with a couple of large groups of jambos sitting on the grass between the club and Lidl's with various carryouts.

So a 1-0 defeat to a reasonable strength starting line up from Hearts, even if they did make 8 subs at one go.

Never read too much into pre season. All I really care about this season is putting up a decent attempt at consolidating our status.

Thought we played pretty well for most of the game, closing down well and pressing the ball back. Some slack mistakes that could've been punished but it was mostly after all the substitutions when the game kinda petered out and got dull to watch.

Actually thought we were the better team when we conceded the goal too, we got caught out on the break after a spell putting Hearts under pressure, Gallagher hit the bye line and put in a bad cross, then Hearts broke up the pitch and outnumbered us, they drew out our keeper and laid the ball off for an easy tap in but hit the underside of our bar and the ball came back out, looked like they had blew their chance but the ref signalled a goal so must've crossed the line and spun out.

Mullen looked really good putting himself about and getting involved in everything up front, but Mackin looked slow and not very good, wasn't impressed with him at all. Keaghan was back to his best in midfield, as was Pittman, Byrne was a bit slack with some passes but still looked good, in fact I would say everyone except Mackin played well.

2nd half Josh Peters came on and looked lively, did more in 2 minutes than Mackin all first half, made a far better strike partner for Mullen. On the whole i'm pretty happy with our first pre season game, everyone looked quite sharp  for their first game after their hols, things are shaping up nicely.

Hopefully see Carrick and Todorov against Motherwell, Mullen might need rested for that game after limping off when he was subbed.

Was the Keeper Kowron or somebody else?

Rumour has it Neil Alexander was in for a chat this week but no hint as to any likelihood of a deal

I take it that it was Skowron, just said trialist. Didn't have too much to do apart from kicking pass backs, some were pretty wild balls hit towards him but he coped well enough, made a really good reflex save and then got down to save another that looked goal bound from close range.

There were some more trialist came on in the 2nd half but I didn't really notice them standing out, i'd say our starting 11 minus Mackin for Peters looked the best from that game.

Liviforever wrote:Thought we played pretty well for most of the game, closing down well and pressing the ball back. Some slack mistakes that could've been punished but it was mostly after all the substitutions when the game kinda petered out and got dull to watch.

Actually thought we were the better team when we conceded the goal too, we got caught out on the break after a spell putting Hearts under pressure, Gallagher hit the bye line and put in a bad cross, then Hearts broke up the pitch and outnumbered us, they drew out our keeper and laid the ball off for an easy tap in but hit the underside of our bar and the ball came back out, looked like they had blew their chance but the ref signalled a goal so must've crossed the line and spun out.

Mullen looked really good putting himself about and getting involved in everything up front, but Mackin looked slow and not very good, wasn't impressed with him at all. Keaghan was back to his best in midfield, as was Pittman, Byrne was a bit slack with some passes but still looked good, in fact I would say everyone except Mackin played well.

2nd half Josh Peters came on and looked lively, did more in 2 minutes than Mackin all first half, made a far better strike partner for Mullen. On the whole i'm pretty happy with our first pre season game, everyone looked quite sharp  for their first game after their hols, things are shaping up nicely.

Hopefully see Carrick and Todorov against Motherwell, Mullen might need rested for that game after limping off when he was subbed.

Pretty much agree with your summing up. Mackin needs to try harder if he wants a start. He didn't take responsibility preferring to give the ball to somebody else. Apart from a couple of flick ons to nobody he didn't contribute much.

I liked how we pressed Hearts and weren't afraid to get stuck in in spite of the Hearts guys being bigger and quite physical. Ref ignored a lot of the shirt pulling and barging. We never really looked like scoring but hopefully that will come.

Callum Carson's match report: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/local-sport/livingston-0-hearts-1-livi-10728832

Agree with most of it but dunno what he was seeing in Mackin. Mullen stung their keepers hands from a 25 yarder and Peters almost scored, apart from that though we mostly competed well in midfield without threatening much. Hearts squandered about 3 good chances and brought out good saves from both Skowron and Maley, some were after they did an all change bringing on a new team so you can't really judge too much into the game after that, their 2nd eleven had more energy and it showed in the last 10 minutes or so where we looked a bit flat. First half and up till Mullen went off and we brought on 4 subs we more than held our own.

Better prices for the Motherwell game.

Kick off is at 7:45pm and admission to the game is pay-at-the-gate with prices as follows

Adults: £10
Concessions & U16 : £5

Liviforever wrote:Callum Carson's match report: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/local-sport/livingston-0-hearts-1-livi-10728832

Agree with most of it but dunno what he was seeing in Mackin. Mullen stung their keepers hands from a 25 yarder and Peters almost scored, apart from that though we mostly competed well in midfield without threatening much. Hearts squandered about 3 good chances and brought out good saves from both Skowron and Maley, some were after they did an all change bringing on a new team so you can't really judge too much into the game after that, their 2nd eleven had more energy and it showed in the last 10 minutes or so where we looked a bit flat. First half and up till Mullen went off and we brought on 4 subs we more than held our own.

Actually I'm also in the minority in thinking Mackin showed promise. His biggest problem seemed to be his positioning presumably not having played with the team before Mullin kept bossing him into particular positions on the field. However he won more than his fair share of headers against a pretty lanky Hearts defence.

That being said he's going to have to show a lot more if he's going to have a chance of displacing Toderov from his starting position. I think the boys are pretty much the same age with not a lot of difference with the height or build but Toderov seems to command his position that much better.

With regard to Peters I think he did show promise but again he lacked the sharpness necessary for the championship. No complaints about his efforts but just that moment of indecision and slow reaction meant that it was too easy for the Hearts defence to mop him up. Again he will struggle to get ahead of Caddick in my opinion.

Is Caddick a new signing?

Yeah Carrick and Peters look similar in style and the same with Mackin and Todorov. Maybe being a bit harsh on Mackin with it being his first pre season game right enough, hopefully he'll settle in by the start of the season.

We'll soon see if the work on the pitch has opened up the soil and helped with our drainage problem, it has been raining all day and not forecast to stop till late evening.

Another good first half display from Livi, passed it about well (no pun intended) and had a couple of decent efforts on goal, Knox's shot being tipped onto the bar being our closest to scoring. Thought Knox had a good game, he's looking better every time I see him now, looks like he'll be a cracking player for us this season. Mullen again looked good, and Toddy did a lot better up front with him than Mackin against Hearts. Our midfield is looking very strong and full of energy, and Gallagher Halkett and Lithgow are looking good at the back too, although we should've conceded a goal with a bit of slack marking not tracking runners earlier in the half, but Motherwell missed a sitter after cutting us open. We lost possession when we were coming out from breaking up the pitch and conceded the opener right on the brink of HT, that was a sore one to take.

Much like the Hearts game when we made changes in the 2nd half, the better players went off and it weakened us, but as they say, it is more about giving players a run out and the manager learning things about his squad than the result.

Still not seeing what Mackin brings, Toddy and him just didn't work and apart from Mullen i'm not seeing a striker who will score goals, dunno why Carrick isn't featuring in the pre season games either, hoping he can impress more than what I've seen from the others o we're gonna be struggling if anything happens to Mullen.

Thought Maley did a decent enough job first half, wasn't sure who the keeper was that came on for him as he was doing a lot of shouting, till he made a right arse of it for the 2nd goal rushing out of his box, read on Callum Carson's twitter that it was Graeme Smith.

Oh and the pitch is looking really good, lovely surface and no problems with all the rain that fell today either, was great seeing us being able to pass it around so well on a good surface.

Actually I thought the surface started to cut up

Yes; the goalkeeper was Graeme Smith who was given a game as thanks for helping out the club with goalkeeper training - he is not after or being offered a contract apparently.

Thought trialist number 3 did okay; was this the same boy from Saturday; it looked like him.

Jacobs and Pittman worked really well together but add Josh Mullin and Knox (possibly having his best game in a livi shirt) and we ran their midfield ragged.

If this had been a competitive game, and Dallas was the man in black, Motherwell certainly wouldn't have ended the game with eleven players on the pitch.

Yeah the ref was shocking, some terrible decisions from him, their number 16 was a dirty git and should've been booked several times, I think that's why he wasn't on 2nd half, their manager prob decided to take him off before he did one of our players a serious injury. Mullen was grabbed round his waist and fouled inside their penalty box too but the ref got a case of temporary blindness.

2nd goal was after we made a lot of changes, incl taking Halkett and Maley off, dunno WTF Smith was doing rushing out his box like that, comic cuts moment.
Nicely put away though, and that was the difference between the teams, Motherwell could stick the ball away when presented with the chance to do so and apart from Mullen we just don't seem to have the strikers to do that.

Liviforever wrote:




2nd goal was after we made a lot of changes, incl taking Halkett and Maley off, dunno WTF Smith was doing rushing out his box like that, comic cuts moment.
Nicely put away though, and that was the difference between the teams, Motherwell could stick the ball away when presented with the chance to do so and apart from Mullen we just don't seem to have the strikers to do that.

Danny Mullen was playing far too wide in my opinion. He caused them a lot of problems on the wing but, not being in the centre, meant there was no-one to capitalise on the knockdowns.

To be honest that's two games now against premiership opposition and our midfield have more than held their own when playing at full strength.

Does look like we're going to miss Buchanan up front bit we have quite a few to choose from now so who knows; maybe one of the youngsters will step up.

My biggest concern is the goalkeeper; Maley was far too slow to react on a number of occasions. There was more time in the First but he wont get such of a luxury in the championship.