Livi v Pars

Here at last, the league opener and flag unfurling day.


Really looking forward to this one to see what we're up against in the Championship, reckon Dunfermline will be a top 4 contender so this will be about as hard a game as we'll get in the league. Cardle is one to watch, he absolutely ripped us in that pre season game last year, tricky fecker.

Feeling upbeat here and i'll go for a narrow Livi win, 2-1 Livi, FG 12 mins.

Cardle used to be a bit temperamental when he played for Airdrie. I remember him getting sent off at their place a few years ago for fighting with his own team mate. Hilarious.

My Pars supporting work mate was worried during pre season, not so much now after their leagu cup run.
I reckon it could be a cracker of a game.

Liv 2 Dun 2 fg 22mins

Pity I'll miss it but first trip to Canada for 14 years had to take precedence.

Bertie Bassett wrote:My Pars supporting work mate was worried during pre season, not so much now after their leagu cup run.
I reckon it could be a cracker of a game.

Liv 2 Dun 2 fg 22mins

Pity I'll miss it but first trip to Canada for 14 years had to take precedence.

You really need to mention Canada a few more times in your posts Bertie

Incidentally I didn't know you were also moving home - there was a huge removals lorry outside you place last night

Just as well we're insured then!! Canada? Have I mentioned Canada? Didn't think I'd mentioned Canada.

1-1, FG 20 mins.

Referee on Saturday:

Livingston v Dunfermline Athletic - Alan Newlands


Over to you Orco.

Done 4 of our games last season where we got 3 wins and a draw. Good guy IMO.

On the other hand, in his 29 games last season he dished out 107 yellow cards and 6 reds.

Liviforever wrote:Referee on Saturday:

Livingston v Dunfermline Athletic - Alan Newlands


Over to you Orco.

Not one of the better ones I'm afraid. He did both Livi home games v Brechin and you yourself described him as brutal in the first of those. He also did Livi v Queens Park where he booked 5 of our players in a game that was not physical.
The games we won with him officiating were ones we won in spite of him.
Hope he redeems himself with a good performance on Saturday but I won't hold my breath.

orco wrote:

Liviforever wrote:Referee on Saturday:

Livingston v Dunfermline Athletic - Alan Newlands


Over to you Orco.

Not one of the better ones I'm afraid. He did both Livi home games v Brechin and you yourself described him as brutal in the first of those. He also did Livi v Queens Park where he booked 5 of our players in a game that was not physical.
The games we won with him officiating were ones we won in spite of him.
Hope he redeems himself with a good performance on Saturday but I won't hold my breath.

So I did.  I went back and had a look at my post for that game, at least he was brutal for both teams, kinda makes it a bit better if he's consistently bad for everyone.

Like everyone else im thoughrally looking forward to this game.Hopefully the referee will be largely annonomous here with no stupid decisions like we usually at the vale.Having watched the Pars against the Jambos last week i was very immpressed by their performance that day and their fighting qualities that served them well.Therefore i feel we might have to settle for a share of the spoils on Saturday.Incidently i for one am not getting sucked in by the old,we are down to the bare bones scenario due to injuries and suspensions coming from some of their supporters.They are decent and should have a reasonable season imo.Anyways nuff said.If we can have even half as good a season as we had last term im sure the faithfull will be more than satisfied.Over to you Livi.Do it!!!

Livingston 1. Dunfermline 2. FG 38 mins.

Livi 3 - Pars 1
FG 10

Gutted to be missing this as I'm on holiday. 1-1, FG 17 mins.

Yaaaaas!!!!! Scotty Pittman

Not surprised it ended 1-1 as I predicted a draw but disappointing that we missed the chance to win it with Mullen's pen being saved.

We better not make the same mistakes with pens this year by continuing with someone who can't score them.

Well gutted we only drew this game, we were by far the better team and deserved our 1-0 HT lead. Their goalkeeper made several good saves to keep them in the game and Alexander had nothing to do until the penalty. If Dunfermline are a top 4 candidate then so must Livi be cause we dominated them in midfield and created chances up front, defended well too but really didn't have that much to defend.

There was no question over our penalty with Mullen being blatantly taken down, but I didn't feel confident about him taking it. He didn't take any of our pens against Thistle and the last one I remember him taking he missed too, but heyho, can't blame him for wanting to take it after winning it.

Newlands was doing quite well first half until he booked Mullen, 2nd half he was bloody murder.

Good solid start for us though, Dunfermline must've felt it was a point gained and we must be looking at it as 2 points dropped, which shows how well we played. I'm really optimistic about our staying up this season and confident we can even push for a play off place.

Would have snapped your hand off for a point pre-match. Just disappointing to miss out on three points given the circumstances.

Highlight of the day for me was at full-time, Dene Shiels challenging some chav to a square go outside the ground! I love football!

I was happy with the performance today. We have a team that puts in effort and in many areas demonstrates some decent skill. Having a good goalkeeper again at last also helps my blood pressure.
It would have been nice to get the three points but like others have said I'd have taken a point before the game. I noticed watching Dunfermline play Hearts last week that they tend to go down easy and it was indeed the reason for us not getting the win today. A decent referee would have booked Cardle not awarded him with a penalty. John Fleming, the head of refereeing, was at the game today so I hope he took note of Freeland's poor performance. (again!)
We have a habit of losing our first league game so I guess one point is better than none.
Onward and upward.

Can't actually believe that I'm disappointed with a draw as before the game that would have been a decent outcome for our first game back in the Championship. However the performance today was almost flawless, the exception being Mullen's missed penalty and on a few occasions Lithgow's sclaffed clearances.

As to the penalty,I thought at first Lithgow stuck out a leg and caught the Pars player as he went in on goal but now I'm more convinced Cardle made the most of it.

Mullen's penalty was far to straight and helped Murdoch's decision making and for me he didn't look confident as he ran up to take it. Would have preferred Keighan to go for it.

Anyhow, first game under our belt so let's continue next week where we left off with Brechin last season and bag all 3 points.

My pen taker of choice would be Pittman or possibly Halkett based on the power he has. Cadden also strikes it well as we have seen from free kicks.

Mackin, Mullin and Keaghan scored the pens against Partick th, but yeah, you'd imagine Pittman would be a good choice too. Cadden scored the one against Rovers last season when Buchanan had been subbed.

Another game where our defence cruised it, really didn't look like Dunfermline would get a sniff at our goal if they hadn't got that dodgy pen, we would've seen the game out at 1-0. I like the way we start games too, every one I've seen us play this season we created a close goal scoring chance in the first minute.
Reading some Pars fans comments on P&B, 'Livi were nothing special, they just had the right formation in midfield to stop us playing.' and something along the lines of 'other teams with quick wingers will destroy them.'

Actually they are right about our midfield but not in the way they meant it, we close teams down and force the ball back and won just about every 50/50 ball constantly breaking up play and turning the game on them, our work rate is also excellent, and we may not be rated as a talented team but we have a few talented players that also work hard and play as a team. Having the continuity from last season is really showing in our results. Loving that nobody rates us even with us still being undefeated in all comps this season, we're really flying under everyone's radar, which is good.

Yep. I also predicted a share of the spoils prior to the match but left deflated at the end due to us not taking the opportunties that fell to us.For me the referree and the nearside linesman had absolute shockers amd i really hoped before hand that we wouldnt be discussing the ineptness of the officials once again.But you saw it for yourselfs.Agree with most about a change of penalty takers.There are better strikers of the ball at our disposal than Danny.Just hope he forgets about it quickly and gets on with it.Bad result for Falkirk yesterday but reckon we will need to be at our very best to get a possitive result over there.Once again unlucky Livi in a game you more than deserved to win.

At least we were unlucky not to get the win but still took something from the game Troy, a couple of seasons back we'd be discussing how unlucky we were to come away with nothing.

Mullen, who admirably faced the assembled media after his failure from 12 yards, added: “It was killing me after the game – so disappointing.
“But I’ll get over it and, if we get another penalty, I’ll be ready to step up again.”

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/sport/football/scottish-championship/484856/livingston-1-dunfermline-1-sean-murdoch-admits-pars-game/