Alloa v Livi

A Livi connection to this game then, GB is their manager, and Craig Easton his assistant, playing wise they've signed Bobby Barr up this season, Liam Buchanan scored for them last night in their 1-0 win over Alloa. Sure Craig Barr plays for them too, but wasn't in their squad last night.

Anyways, be a tougher game than the Brechin one, but still think we'll carry on our fine pre seaon form into these group games with another win, and score 2 or 3 goals. Mon the Lions.

Think we've gone 17 games undefeated in the League cup group stages, some record.

Scratch all that, it's Alloa we're playing.


Think we'll win this by at least 4 goals, Alloa look like being slightly better than Brechin and will finish 4th in the group.

Why are you talking about an away game that isn’t on the fixture list?

Our next game is away to Alloa, then it’s Raith at home followed by a final group game at home to Bollan’s Blue Brazil

Feck knows, thought it was Cowden we were playing Sat.

I see Alloa are selling tickets for away fans to attend the game, and it looks a lot simpler than Livi's set up for the Raith home game. Just stick in how many tickets you want, fill in details of name & address for them to post the tickets to you, and card details to pay for them.
Nae applying for a place in a ballot, adding email addresses to folk you want in your bubble etc.

Yeah, the Livi thing was over complicated - especially the help guides - in the end it was dead simple to add my son and get in the draw for two tickets and the way it worked was the way I thought it should work but the “help guides” threw me off completely and had me chasing the white rabbit.

Haven’t looked at Alloa’s but might do later

Not sure what to make of this game.Apparently there's some kind of bug around the stadium that although not covid related has hampered the training schedule for this week.Davie saying 55% of the staff be it players or backroom have been affected. Hopefully we've a good enough starting 11 tomorrow and claim top spot in the group Currently held by Raith.Obviously a step up from Brechin,but I believe we will be back at the group summit come 4 45 tomorrow. Mon the Lions..

At least it isn't covid, though i've read we've a few positive tests on that score too, this is going to be a trickier season than last with everything opening back up now, and a covid wave expected, really need to change the isolating rules now, so players just need tested like foreign travellers, and if they test negative they don't need to isolate.

Liviforever wrote:Feck knows, thought it was Cowden we were playing Sat.

I see Alloa are selling tickets for away fans to attend the game, and it looks a lot simpler than Livi's set up for the Raith home game. Just stick in how many tickets you want, fill in details of name & address for them to post the tickets to you, and card details to pay for them.
Nae applying for a place in a ballot, adding email addresses to folk you want in your bubble etc.

Well they ain’t posting tickets out, the arrangements were to collect them from an address in Alloa Mon-Fri 9-5 - lot of good that is for folk that work…. But it also said any not collected would be taken to the turnstiles so give enough time not to cause queueing - don’t know why they couldn’t just send an e-ticket - I emailed Alloa to ask for clarification & made the point that collection information would have been useful earlier in the process & what ‘proof’ I needed to bring to prove I’d bought a ticket…. No reply has been forthcoming.

Anyway come 2:30ish I should know if I’ve been ripped off.


And I thought the ballot for home tickets was to be sorted by yesterday? Maybe I misread it… I’ll look again.


*Nope, I read it correctly… so whoever is organising the ballot, hasn’t.

Yeh,like you Bertie I've heard nothing from the club so don't know if I've been successful in the ballot.Only indication I have is the email telling me of confirmation of my application, and that I'd be seated in the Nordan East Stand,but god knows where as no seat number or ticket uplift were mentioned.Someone suggested shambles, and I tend to agree.

Bertie Bassett wrote:

Liviforever wrote:Feck knows, thought it was Cowden we were playing Sat.

I see Alloa are selling tickets for away fans to attend the game, and it looks a lot simpler than Livi's set up for the Raith home game. Just stick in how many tickets you want, fill in details of name & address for them to post the tickets to you, and card details to pay for them.
Nae applying for a place in a ballot, adding email addresses to folk you want in your bubble etc.

Well they ain’t posting tickets out, the arrangements were to collect them from an address in Alloa Mon-Fri 9-5 - lot of good that is for folk that work…. But it also said any not collected would be taken to the turnstiles so give enough time not to cause queueing - don’t know why they couldn’t just send an e-ticket - I emailed Alloa to ask for clarification & made the point that collection information would have been useful earlier in the process & what ‘proof’ I needed to bring to prove I’d bought a ticket…. No reply has been forthcoming.

Anyway come 2:30ish I should know if I’ve been ripped off.


And I thought the ballot for home tickets was to be sorted by yesterday? Maybe I misread it… I’ll look again.


*Nope, I read it correctly… so whoever is organising the ballot, hasn’t.

Have to disagree about Alloa. Instructions were quite clear. Order by 16.00 Thursday for posting or collect weekdays only.
Ordered my ticket on Thursday and got it in the post yesterday.

Fecking hell that was grim, what were we doing for their equaliser, we backed off their player and invited the shot, shocking. Looks like a dive for their penalty but still grim from us not to have built on our goal to put this game away from them.

Good goal by Anderson, and Montano looked decent when he came on (then got injured), couple of decent battling runs from Williamson, that's about it, we were mince all first half and not much better in the 2nd. Really not liking this cross field diagonal passing, and the FB's bombing down the wings, leaving us vulnerable to balls over the top. Dreading to think what Sevco will do to us if we're still playing this system at Ibrox in the league opener, really isn't working for us. Reminiscent of Kenny Miller's style of football. We've just no cutting edge, and look dodgy in defence.

I know we were missing a few players, and Devlin & Forrest would've made a massive difference today, but our style of play and defending look problematic. Deliveries from set pieces looked shite too, the 2 goals from corners last week papered over the cracks in that game, and as it was our first cometitive game i was making allowances for our sloppy play too, but Jesus, it hasn't improved any in our 2nd game, and we got what we deserved.

Must admit I'm not overly enthusiastic about our early season form as of lately.Yeh I know its early doors,and we've had training issues this week,but surely we should have been strong enough to cruise this group,apparently not.Were third and still have it in our hands to get out of this group.Hopefully parity will ensue on Wednesday for my first game in 18 months.More on that later.Got to get that momentum going before the real deal begins.Bad day at the office anyone?.

italion wrote:

Bertie Bassett wrote:

Liviforever wrote:Feck knows, thought it was Cowden we were playing Sat.

I see Alloa are selling tickets for away fans to attend the game, and it looks a lot simpler than Livi's set up for the Raith home game. Just stick in how many tickets you want, fill in details of name & address for them to post the tickets to you, and card details to pay for them.
Nae applying for a place in a ballot, adding email addresses to folk you want in your bubble etc.

Well they ain’t posting tickets out, the arrangements were to collect them from an address in Alloa Mon-Fri 9-5 - lot of good that is for folk that work…. But it also said any not collected would be taken to the turnstiles so give enough time not to cause queueing - don’t know why they couldn’t just send an e-ticket - I emailed Alloa to ask for clarification & made the point that collection information would have been useful earlier in the process & what ‘proof’ I needed to bring to prove I’d bought a ticket…. No reply has been forthcoming.

Anyway come 2:30ish I should know if I’ve been ripped off.


And I thought the ballot for home tickets was to be sorted by yesterday? Maybe I misread it… I’ll look again.


*Nope, I read it correctly… so whoever is organising the ballot, hasn’t.

Have to disagree about Alloa. Instructions were quite clear. Order by 16.00 Thursday for posting or collect weekdays only.
Ordered my ticket on Thursday and got it in the post yesterday.

I can assure you there was nothing about them being posted out when I bought mine; however it was available to collect just outside the ground - so unfortunately I was able to witness first hand the total shambles that Martindale is presiding over.

Liviforever wrote:Fecking hell that was grim, what were we doing for their equaliser, we backed off their player and invited the shot, shocking. Looks like a dive for their penalty but still grim from us not to have built on our goal to put this game away from them.

Good goal by Anderson, and Montano looked decent when he came on (then got injured), couple of decent battling runs from Williamson, that's about it, we were mince all first half and not much better in the 2nd. Really not liking this cross field diagonal passing, and the FB's bombing down the wings, leaving us vulnerable to balls over the top. Dreading to think what Sevco will do to us if we're still playing this system at Ibrox in the league opener, really isn't working for us. Reminiscent of Kenny Miller's style of football. We've just no cutting edge, and look dodgy in defence.

I know we were missing a few players, and Devlin & Forrest would've made a massive difference today, but our style of play and defending look problematic. Deliveries from set pieces looked shite too, the 2 goals from corners last week papered over the cracks in that game, and as it was our first cometitive game i was making allowances for our sloppy play too, but Jesus, it hasn't improved any in our 2nd game, and we got what we deserved.

Couldn’t agree more, absolute shambles of a performance. Heard on Radio Scotland that Martindale was disappointed with the player’s mindset, not treating it as a cup tie…. Sorry Davie but as manager it’s your job to make sure they understand what it means to play for the club & to ensure they have the right mindset.

Best thing about today was just being at a football match, albeit a poor one.

Styjek got lucky twice in the first half when the goal frame bailed him out but it was the shambles of a defence that left him exposed the first time & poor set piece defending on the second incident. Apart from that he was not troubled and when we took the lead we should have managed the game out.

Parkes & Fitz will be ripped apart by forwards with pace. Devlin is much better than McMillan. Jacko took up some decent positions but hardly ever got it played to him (esp first half). He should have had a free kick on the edge of the box first half too but the ref was useless.

Williamson & Lewis show promise but have a long way to go in their development.

Pitts is wasted in the role he is being asked to do & is not vocal enough to be captain.

Sibbs had one or two good moments but didn’t really get going. Penrice has gone backwards since his first stint with us.
Anderson took his goal well but missed another chance badly.

Not going to mention the subs, they didn’t really have much impact… Montaño did well in the build up to the goal; Obileye gave away the - at best - very soft pen… the problem was he got too close & gave the ref the chance to give Alloa a gift.

Alloa reacted to our goal much better than we reacted to both of theirs; we had no urgency, no cohesion, always passed square or back or over hit a long diagonal. I know this wasn’t our first choice xi but they still should have had too much for Alloa. Fair play to the Wasps though, they didn’t drop their heads when we scored & probably deserved the win over the 90 mins, considering they hit the goal frame twice in the first half.

Martindale has to realise the honeymoon period is well and truly over; we have been rank since the unbeaten run of last season ended, so he needs to get the finger out & he needs to do it now.

Wow,Bertie,don't hold back.But your dead right.We haven't been the same since the cup final and the unbeaten run.So many of the squad not here any more but its the same for most clubs.Im not convinced that the incomings are up to the quality needed to sustain our position as a top flight club.As usual I could be totally wrong.But the warning signs are there.As you say the honeymoon period is diminishing and has to be rectified ASAP.

Big game against Raith on Wed night, we need to beat them by 2 goals for their superior GD to be overturned, then beat Cowdenbeath by more goals than Raith beat Alloa. Otherwise we're looking at a best 2nd placed team to get through to the next round.

Right now i'm not too confident we'll beat Raith or Cowden, playing like we did today we def wont. Don't know how much the illness that swept through the team had to do with this performance, certainly missed a few players we'd have counted on, Devlin, Forrest and Mullin only player that made any difference from the bench was Montano, and he went off injured. Problem is will they be any better by Wed, we could do with them back for that game, and fit enough to make the difference.

Also ffs stop playing Pittman as a holding midfielder for McMillan going forward, total waste of his talents. Can see Devlin doing well attacking wise in that wb role, but agree with Bertie, McMillan isn't anywhere near as good as Devlin going forward down the wing, and a lot of our fans slated Devlin last season, really missing him badly now. However i think the main problem is Martindale's current set up playing players in roles that isn't best suited to them, McMillan is a better defensive FB, and Pittman is miles better as an attacking CM, playing further up the pitch. The long diagonal balls are being overhit more times than finding their man too, and imo far too easy to work out and defend against. Then what have we got as a plan B?

The Livi team that got us promoted and has kept us in the SPL was one that constantly pressed the opposition and fought for every ball. What I have seen so far in the two games I have watched bears no resemblance to that. Where has the work ethic gone?
Missing players is only part of the excuse if the ones that come in don't put the effort in.
We didn't really deserve anything from the game today but in saying that the penalty was a joke.
Need to get our act together for Wednesday night or Raith will have an easy game.

Liviforever wrote:what were we doing for their equaliser, we backed off their player and invited the shot, shocking..

Social distancing, it’s all the rage these days.

orco wrote:The Livi team that got us promoted and has kept us in the SPL was one that constantly pressed the opposition and fought for every ball. What I have seen so far in the two games I have watched bears no resemblance to that. Where has the work ethic gone?
Missing players is only part of the excuse if the ones that come in don't put the effort in.
We didn't really deserve anything from the game today but in saying that the penalty was a joke.
Need to get our act together for Wednesday night or Raith will have an easy game.

One of our best players for doing that is being stuck back on the halfway line over on the right wing, covering McMillan getting up the pitch, Pittman presses his heart out when given the chance to do so.
Remember Hughes sticking Scougall on as a holding midfielder just so we could bring the ball out of defence, and then we had nobody with his ball skills up the pitch, this is as bad.

This is also why i'm holding off opinions on Williamson and Lewis, prob Penrice too, may well be it's Martindale's formation and tactics to blame for them being pish too.
Though Williamson did show some fight and skill in a couple of runs, the passing of our whole team is way off.

Agree with you though Orco, also Anderson had no midfielders backing him up when he lost out to a big CB, where was our 2nd wave to win 2nd balls? No press at all in their half. It was one of the things i liked about Martindale these past 5/6 seasons, he never changed much of what we did, it worked for us so he kept doing it. Holt started tinkering with the team last season and it was a disaster, now Martindale is doing the same.

Bertie Bassett wrote:

Liviforever wrote:what were we doing for their equaliser, we backed off their player and invited the shot, shocking..

Social distancing, it’s all the rage these days.

Aye we social distanced the shit out of them with that goal, talking of which, thought it was us with the shit bug, should've been Alloa players scared to get too close to us, not the other way around. Montano was on his way heading for goal when an Alloa player took the legs from him, that's what we should've done to their player the minute he started his jinky wee run, not run away from him.