Livi v Accies

Excellent start today, just a pity we didn't build on it and win this by the 2 or 3 goals that we should have, totally dominated the first half and should've had the game sewn up. Still, a good solid defensive display and the only time Kelly was troubled was when Lithgow and him had a wee mix up between them, don't think Kelly had a save to make from Accies.

Good seeing Hardie coming on too, Robinson and Menga give us great energy and commitment but we lacked a bit of composure and finishing that Hardie has, esp Menga, he would be some player if he'd just settle himself a bit and hit the target. Loving the guy's enthusiasm but he was a bit headless chicken today.

Belter of a goal by Lawless, another player I like the look of, some more of those this season would do.

!0 points after 5 games and sitting 3rd in the league just behind Celtic on GD, what a season we're having. Bring on Hearts next week.

In our debut season in the top flight back in 2001/2002 it took us 7 games to reach 10 points!

We beat Hearts, drew with Rangers at Ibrox, lost away to Dundee & then 0-0 draws with Celtic & Motherwell before beating Dundee United & drawing 2-2 with StJohnstone to reach 10 points that season.

We also had a reasonable unbeaten run after that loss to Dundee... the 0-0 with Celtic started an 8 game unbeaten run that was ended by Rangers at Vale. We bounced back from that with 4 wins in a row (the last time we have won 3 or more on the bounce in the top flight) in a run of 7 unbeaten which was ended by Celtic & then came another defeat to Killie... we then won 3 of the next 5 the 2 losses to the OF breaking up wins over Aberdeen, Hearts & Motherwell & drew with Dundee United.

We then hit a major slump losing 4 on the bounce, then drawing twice before being hammered 5-1 by Celtic.... 2 points from 21 - easily our worst run of the season... in the immortal words of A Question of Sport... what happened next? We beat Rangers 2-1 that’s what! We then lost to Aberdeen & 3rd place was in jeopardy but we finished the season by whipping Dunfermline 4-1 & claiming our 4th win of the season against Hearts to finish a legendary 3rd.

Well done to the guys for being ahead of schedule but there is still a long way to go.
It’s certainly enjoyable so far.

Not getting carried away here but these guys are where they are in the league on merit.Terrific display from the Lions yesterday and more than worthy of the three points.The Lawless goal was good enough to win any game and i cant wait to see it again on Sportscene this afternoon.Thought wee Robbo had a belter of a game and was well worthy of the ovation when he came off.Great to see Ryan back and hopefully will get back to full match fitness in the coming weeks.Oh and Dougie Imrie should feel embarresed about some of his antics out there yesterday.Never changes does he.Any way well done to Gary,Davie and the boys on a job well done and its on to Tynecastle we go.Who knows just maybe!.

Troy wrote:Not getting carried away here but these guys are where they are in the league on merit.Terrific display from the Lions yesterday and more than worthy of the three points.The Lawless goal was good enough to win any game and i cant wait to see it again on Sportscene this afternoon.Thought wee Robbo had a belter of a game and was well worthy of the ovation when he came off.Great to see Ryan back and hopefully will get back to full match fitness in the coming weeks.Oh and Dougie Imrie should feel embarresed about some of his antics out there yesterday.Never changes does he.Any way well done to Gary,Davie and the boys on a job well done and its on to Tynecastle we go.Who knows just maybe!.

If you watch it on sportscene don't forget to have the sound turned down ans kids soft toys for throwing. I can only imagine the crap they'll troll out for the "lowest gate game of the season thus far" and "it'll ne a long hard season".

Anyway great result but was worried we were so wasteful in front of goal; we had plenty of opportunity but failed capitalise. Would have brought Kaja on instead of Burns but we were probably obligated to do so with with being unable to play him next week and not playing in the Hibs game.

Next two games are obviously tough; we cant play Burns in the Hearts game which is probably not a problem, we have more than enough options elsewhere, but Hardie wont be able to play in the rangers game which could be a big loss based on how wasteful we were today.

The referee, Muir was pretty poor, Imre and Miller should certainly have been booked for their blatant diving; the number of times a Hamilton player picked up the ball and walked away with it then throwing it away yet the referee did nothing. Continually broke up any attacking impetus we had. Frankly, in the first half, they had no answer to our strength in midfield and down the wings. In the second half we dropped off and started to let them back into the game; one thing for next week is to remember the game lasts for 90 minutes.

Incidentally I think I'm right in say Imre left the pitch after the game without shaking hands with anyone; spends the best part of an hour strutting around the pitch with his chest pumped out like the big "I am" and then leaves in a paddy.

Robinson is more of a goal threat for us when he's playing in midfield, up front he has to deal with too many high balls and is far too wee to be playing like that, fair play to him for sticking at it and running his legs off though. Both him and Dolly roast the life out of defenders with their constant buzzing about which helps our midfield out a good bit. Hardie has more physical presence and height to take advantage of those high balls hit up top, huge loss not having Lee Miller in there for that kind of ball though.


Noticed how good Lamie is in the air too, wouldn't mind seeing if he could adapt to being a target man for Hardie to play off sometimes till Miller is back, he wins everything in the air. Might be worth a try when we're looking to mix it up a bit, although I like his defensive qualities too but Jack McMillan can cover that area too and is decent going forward. We'll no doubt have to use everyone at some point this season and we have a good bit of quality for cover waiting to get their chance.


Dolly will hopefully improve his decision making and final ball with a bit of coaching, his pace and robustness gives us a great attacking threat, but it needs harnessed for us to benefit more from it. I think we should've subbed him a bit sooner too, you could see he had given it his all and was dropping off a bit. Can't grumble too much though, we won another game against a team renowned for pulling off comebacks, it has been a great season so far, esp since Holt came in, he's totally bought into how we play and isn't messing with our quality brand of football.

Bertie Bassett wrote:In our debut season in the top flight back in 2001/2002 it took us 7 games to reach 10 points!

We beat Hearts, drew with Rangers at Ibrox, lost away to Dundee & then 0-0 draws with Celtic & Motherwell before beating Dundee United & drawing 2-2 with StJohnstone to reach 10 points that season.

We also had a reasonable unbeaten run after that loss to Dundee... the 0-0 with Celtic started an 8 game unbeaten run that was ended by Rangers at Vale. We bounced back from that with 4 wins in a row (the last time we have won 3 or more on the bounce in the top flight) in a run of 7 unbeaten which was ended by Celtic & then came another defeat to Killie... we then won 3 of the next 5 the 2 losses to the OF breaking up wins over Aberdeen, Hearts & Motherwell & drew with Dundee United.

We then hit a major slump losing 4 on the bounce, then drawing twice before being hammered 5-1 by Celtic.... 2 points from 21 - easily our worst run of the season... in the immortal words of A Question of Sport... what happened next? We beat Rangers 2-1 that’s what! We then lost to Aberdeen & 3rd place was in jeopardy but we finished the season by whipping Dunfermline 4-1 & claiming our 4th win of the season against Hearts to finish a legendary 3rd.

Well done to the guys for being ahead of schedule but there is still a long way to go.
It’s certainly enjoyable so far.

I remember that season well, our slump let Aberdeen right back into it before we beat them off again for 3rd spot. I went to all the Hibs and Hearts away matches that season too, it was glorious pumping Hearts all the time, sure we got back to back wins over Hearts and Hibs away from home too.


What i'm finding incredible is comparing last season's points to this season, we're in a far tougher league but have done a lot better at the 5 games mark. We were on 6 points after our first 5 games in the Championship. Considering we've played the likes of Celtic, Killie and Hibs in those games, compared to Brechin, Dunfermline, St Mirren, Morton and QotS, that is some going.

Sky Sports goal of the day yesterday....

https://vimeo.com/290054526

Bertie Bassett wrote:Sky Sports goal of the day yesterday....

https://vimeo.com/290054526

Pick that one out, right in the top corner. Good angle seeing it from the East stand too.

Yeah, saw it as a belter live but that camera angle is really good to see it in all its glory.

Outside of the foot always looks special when you see it. They were talking about it & demonstrating it with Merson & Bullard on Soccer AM yesterday morning, maybe Lawless was watching

Did you read Holt's post match comments saying he was shouting at Lawless to take the ball to the byeline and cross it, and saying maybe it's better if the players just ignore him.

No, but the more I hear his quotes the more I like him.

Well was that the Alan Muir show or what!? If you cast your mind back though was he not the eejit several seasons ago who gave QoS a penalty for the ball hitting Coll Donaldson's face? Whatever, some of the decisions on Saturday were unbelievable. We might have won but those bookings could come back to haunt us.
As for the game, it reminded me of St Mirren away where we dominated play. Hamilton came into it a bit more in the second half but didn't really threaten. I also think Livi decided early on to hang on to what we had.
Byrne had a quieter than usual game and I haven't quite made up my mind about Menga. He looks the part at times but his decision making is suspect. As for Scott Pittman he must be the most underrated player in the league. I only hope we keep him for the whole season.
Our strengths as always are workrate and togetherness.
On to Tynecastle next week. There's no pressure in these games and who knows with this team.
Great time to be a Livi fan after the years in the wilderness.

I was glad I wasn't drinking any tea when I watched sportscene, and the commentator said 'was that an elbow from Lawson, Imrie doesn't go down easily' then we saw him throwing himself into Lawson as he dived trying to get a penalty, don't think they showed the other dive he did outside the box, the boy goes down almost every time he gets the ball.

As for their players grabbing the ball and running away with it whenever we got a foul, and the ref not bothering his arse about it. Saw the lino award a throw in to us too, Accies taking the throw in and the ref not bothering, then giving us a throw in when i'm positive it was a Livi player that kicked it out.

How MacKinnon didn't walk for his challenge on Halkett I'll never know; mind you I think Lithgow had a quiet "word" with him after that and he seemed to disappear. A real Scott Brown character and not just the unbelievably ugly looks. That being said I though he was the only player on the Accies side for large periods of time who showed any determination to try to challenge us.

Was worried that Gallagher was starting to get wound up after his bookings and the amount of silly fouls being awarded to Accies for nothing. His push on one of their players after the ball went out for a throw in could have resulted in a second yellow if the guy had dropped to the floor clutching his face.

Thought the Sportscene team were unusually complimentary to us last night and only one comment on the pitch. I did smile at the comment when Imrie went down with an apparent head-knock with "Dogie Imrie doesn't go down lightly". Ahem - excuse me but what game were you watching.

The tongue in cheek comments towards the end about us being in a European spot and we should be safe; well we have ten points, we may end up playing Dundee four times if we end up in the bottom half after the break so that's twelve more . We need 37 points to be safe meaning we need another 15 points from the rest of the season. Come the winter time when other teams have games called off we should be able to continue to play many of them meaning that we'll have less of a fixture pileup before the split.

Alternatively if we aim for the top half we need on average 44 points before the split. That's 14.66 points per eleven games. With ten points already we need another 4.66 from the next six games to meet our target.

Incidentally does anyone remember the debacle of our first season in the SPL when they'd messed up the fixtures which meant we ended up playing twenty away games and only eighteen at home?

Yes, I do remember our 18/20 season when we still managed to finish 3rd... I kept track of it every season after that & we always had 19/19 so they still owe us a home game.

I noticed the Accies knicking our throw in & the Scott Brown clone & agree that despite his thuggery he was Accies best player. As for “Imrie doesn’t go down lightly”... they’re right, he goes down heavily every time someone is within 2 feet of him... he’s a dirty, diving, cheating git & Scottish football will be a better place when he hangs up his steel toe capped boots.

I suppose it's a clever bit of cheating to go down throwing yourself against the defender in an attempt to tangle your legs together, makes it difficult for the ref to recognise it was the attacking player fouling the defender and not the other way around, he got Halkett booked when he took a dive too, and was also at it with Lawson for the penalty attempt and the earlier pretend head knock. Noticed the Hibs player got a penalty against Killie doing something similar, sticking his foot out and tripping Broadfoot, making it look like he was kicked instead. Thankfully for us it was one of the few decisions our ref got right for Imrie's dive. Should've booked him for it though.

Of course if Imrie isn't booked for his diving escapades then he'll continue to do it ... and get away with it.

Saw this today, amazing start by the team, looking forward to seeing where we finish.


Points total in the top tier after 5 games:

01/02 - 6 points
02/03 - 4 points
03/04 - 5 points
04/05 - 4 points
05/06 - 1 point
18/19 - 10 points