Us v County.

Feeling uneasy about this.County have done better than i thought they would have at this stage and will be a tough nut to crack.Our defence, one of our strong points has been suspect recently.All this talk about tactics and formations confuses the hell out off me.We need to get consistency and momentum in these next two games or we are in soapy bubble imo.Youve probably guessed im worried already.That could be eleveated if our forward line can give us some hope even this early,thats if their playing and fit enough.Anyway good luck to the Lions.. I will be watching with bated breath

Our win in Dingwall was a highlight of last season for me... hoping we get the win that kick starts our season... but they have made a great start & will be confident

No idea what the striker situation is going to be, Poplatnik seems to be injured, and Stokes isn't very fit, doubt he'll start, and with Lars never having played in Scotland he may need to come on gradually. So will we go with Robbo again, or will Holt give Hammy a start.

Can't wait for all of that to be sorted and we have a settled team, defence isn't far away, hope Holt stick with Fitzwater and doesn't drop him for Efe, his run up the wing was impressive, setting up Pitts goal, would like for him to get more games to settle in and see more of those silky runs up the wing.

Feel this game and the next against Accies could have us back on track if we get 2 wins, mon the Lions lets do this.

Just hope that by the time we get all this sorted,we are not cut adrift at the bottom with a mountain to climb.Could end up unsurmountable.Thats worse case scenario of course.Trying to stay positive but im struggling at the moment.Its up to us to get ourselves out of this.We wont get favours from others.

We really need to take something out of this game or our season will be defined as a fight against relegation. A win would calm us all down and allow us time to restart things after the international break. A draw is better than nothing but is always a bit disappointing at home. Hopefully the guys will play with maximum effort and show us what they are capable of.

Yeh,agree Orco.Ross County arent coming down just to make up numbers.But a win would certainly lift our spirits at the moment. Hopefully 6 points from these two winnable games before the will stand us in good stead after the return. Only Celtic after that so nothing to worry about there.

International clearance for both Lars Lokotsch and Anthony Stokes has now been received by the club so either could play. Don't expect Stokes will be on from the start due to questions over his current fitness but Lokotsch is a very real possibility.

Assuming we're going to go for a win (and not try to sit in and lose 1-0) I imagine he will be given a partner to work with. That could be Robinson or one of the other forwards or even Souda with the idea that Stokes makes an appearance with 20 mins to go.#

Mon the Livi; a win is now overdue.

Tbh i'd fire on Stokes from the start regardless of his lack of match fitness, and leave him on till he starts lagging, however unfit he is he'd still be better than playing with a midfielder up front. Also desperate to see how the big German does, fuckit, go with both of them up front and throw caution to the wind. Could be a revelation and we'll score 6 goals, 6-5 Livi would do me.

More generally, I'm living in the hope that Lokotsch is a direct replacement for Dykes and that he might perform the role that Dykes played with Dobbie at QoS only with Stokes in the Dobbie role. One can but dream.

Yeh,would be great Orco.Hes a big lad.Surely either would be better than having a midfielder up front on his own.Got to have an attacking threat as i think County will come at us.On a side note hope we dont get any technical issues with the stream.Ive had them as have many others.Hopefully theve been ironed out.Mon the Lions

First home game was the worst with stream issues, kept freezing and crashing. The sound went in other games but tbh that was a blessing, i'm having to turn it to mute whenever we're attacking around the box as it's always ahead of play and fecking spoils it telling us what has happened in advance. Plus our commentary is so unbiased towards Livi it's actually biased towards the opposition, and it's better listening to the away commentary.

Wish we could have a nae commentary option and just watch the game like we're sitting in the stand, muting it loses what little atmosphere there is with nae fans there.

Anyway, desperate for us to play Stokes and Lars to see what they can do, hopefully we'll see at least one of them getting a game today. And for us to get our first win of the season. Mon eh Lions.

Nae Stokes but Lars is starting, and Poplatnik is back in the squad and on the bench.

Fitzwater injured and Ambrose taking his place, and a start for our new LB Serrano.

Starting well, playing the ball around and setting the pace of the game.

Pitts missing a great chance/

Wee need to take them.Big Lars looking ok.

Have to disagree on Lars, I didn’t think he offered much at all. Rarely won a header & even more rarely held it up. Okay, he hit the bar but it would have been an easy save if it was lower. He was better second half but while the commentary team thought it was a solid debut I was not particularly impressed. That said, I wasn’t particularly impressed the first time I saw Dykes either.

Forrest & Devlin were stand outs for me. I was surprised by Sibbs being subbed but Holt did very well when he came on & we actually looked more solid.

McCrorie is clearly a hun, shies away from most crosses. Other than that he was fine.
Serrano looked a bit ponderous but improved as the game went on & got the assist on the goal.
Efe & Jon were as comfy as you like for most of the match & Jon got the all important goal.
Devlin had Tremarco on toast most of the time & although Reid gave him a harder time he came out on top there too.
Marv had probably his best game so far this season, covered well for Efe when he went forward. Still not back to his best yet though.
Sibbs was playing well, probably our best player first half, but Holt replaced him & did even better.
Forrest showed he has the ability to get by his man on numerous occasions especially 2nd half & looked a threat.
Pittman should have scored but in his defence, it fizzed at him & he probably didn’t expect it to reach him & he had little time to react when it did go past Lars.
Robbo was poor first half but more like himself second & ended up playing well.
Lokotsch, see comments above... early days though, he could come good & he certainly didn’t hide.
Tiff flatters to deceive, he either needs a run in the side to show what he can do or get punted out to a team that will play him. He’s 22 now & needs to be staking a claim for a starting position.

Main commentator really isn’t up to much, consistently describes things wrongly. Today there was a goal kick described as a corner, a throw in described as offside & numerous occasions where “Lokotsch held it up well” when in fact he actually didn’t hold it up at all & lost possession & one time where he had just won it in a tackle!

But... a win is a win & 3 very welcome points.

Some summary there Bertie,well done.Trying not to pick out individuals,but ithink at least four of our team raised their game when they had to.Sibbald took a couple of knocks in the first half and obviously hadnt recovered, hence getting subbed.As you say Holt did well when he came on and looked comfortable. For me, like Hamilton Tiffs looks out of his depth at this level although i know he has admirers on this forum. As you say Devlin strolled this,and big John doing what hes good at was pleasing. The shite thats being thrown at Pittman on other forums is nonsencicle imo.Will always give 100% argueably not every game,but for his workrate would be hard to drop.Anyway thats the way i saw it,others might disagree but hey thats democracy.Over to you LIVIFOREVER.

No surprise i disagree with Bertie on Lars, decent debut I thought, certainly showed enough to think he's got potential to get better and better as the season goes on. For a young lad not having played at this level before, and in a strange Country, where football is played at a far quicker pace with tackles flying in, i thought he was coping well, and even improved in the 2nd half, which shows he's already learning and adjusting to our game, and how Livi play.

Also thought Serrano did well, good eye for a pass, putting the ball in hehind defenders for our players to run onto, can see him being a good asset once he, and our players get to know one another better, and make the runs for him to pass the ball onto.

Agree about Forrest and Devlin, Devlin is esp good at going forward when he doesn't have to worry too much about defending, and Effe had a stormer of a game in the CB role alongside Guthrie, making good driving runs and mopping everything up. Best game he's had for us imo.

Should've been a comfortable scoreline but i wont quibble about that, all i wanted was a Livi win, no matter how we got it, and that's what we got, kept our 2nd clean sheet at home too, which is good to see. Hell even MCrorie came out and made a decisive sweeper keeper move, not hesitating for a second, happy days.

Yeh,welcome back L/F.Agree with your sentiments. Lots have been said since your last post,but spot on.Think wel both need to give P&B a body swerve
.Big Lars needs time to adjust to our way of thinking. Cant compare him to Dykes just yet.But for his first game,thought he done well. Think we both knew we had to take something from this. Think the negativiy concerning Pitts is uncalled for on some forums
Ive said my peice,its up to others to make their judgement.Overall delighted with that battling performance,which they deserved even against 11 men.A wee sign of momentum, but yeh early days but encouraging. Lol.T

Yep the win takes the pressure off for a bit, get another in our home game against Accies and we'll wonder what the fuss was all about in our first 5 games without a win. We were 8 points after 7 games last season and we could be on the exact same if we beat Accies in our next game, shows what a couple of wins can do for us.

I did say he was better second half & referenced my unimpressedness (new word I think) with Dykes on his debut, so I’ve not written the lad off, merely thought he didn’t really have much impact & certainly didn’t hold the ball up top much.

I am of course a surly old curmudgeon (grumpy old git in laymen’s terms) but there you go.

Most important thing was getting the win to set us up for the Accies game, where another win will put a wee bit of distance between them & us... important not to languish near the bottom too long in this league as Hearts found out to their cost last season.

I missed seeing the first 20 minutes only getting the audio and raging around logging on and off. Then after contacting the folk who supply the stream I found out that I had been trying to log in using the credentials for Livi Live rather than the season ticket holder info. Eejit!
Anyway maybe if I sacrificed that for a win it was worth it.
Until we scored I thought here we go again - putting the effort in playing good stuff but unable to put the ball in the net. Then hey presto big John steps up. Relief. I kind of thought we would hang on for the win but that didn't stop the fear every time they went up the park in the final 15 minutes because, you know, we are Livi.

So, a wee break then Hamilton. They won't be any easier than what we've faced so far. Apart from the Celtic defeat they look to have been unlucky and they also did what we couldn't in beating Motherwell. Further, they have played both halves of the OF to our one. No easy games in this league. A win would be great though.

Think one of the more pleasing aspects for me was the way the team retrieved the ball after losing it.They swarmed all over County at times thus not allowing them to settle into their game.We used to do that often in games and saw us succsessfull at it.Good to see us off the bottom.But caution will be the better part of valour for me.Still early days but well done the Lions. onwards and upwards

Yeah we need the win against Accies to open up a gap and start climbing up closer to the teams that have had good starts, Utd, St Mirren, St Johnstone & County. All of whom I think we'll get above this season.

St Mirren don't look any better than they were last season, and still lack an attacking threat, don't think they have the depth to get top 6 either, despite what Fitzpatrick thinks. Neither do Utd, that defeat to Killie has shook them up.

Holt said in his post match interview that he's putting Stokes through a mini pre season boot camp, starting on Monday, to get him up to fitness during the International fortnight break. So I think he'll be ready to get a game against Accies. It was encouraging him saying you can see Stokes quality in training, and sometimes you just have to step back and applaud how good he is. Sounds like he's going to bring quality we don't have in and around the box to get goals.

Yeh,its a great ace to have up your sleeve. Couple of weeks of hard graft and he should just be about ready.The Accies game will allow us to show our intent of getting back up that table,though Accies will be no pushover. Any ways calm has decended on the Troy household for the moment..