The Sevco v Livi (League cup Quarters)

No time to rest on our laurels, we've got another big game on Wed night, a very tough trip to Ibrox, and it doesn't get any tougher than that in Scottish football.

Ok, even i can't say i'm confident of us winning this one, i always give us a chance at home, but this is the hardest place to get anything in Scotland, and Sevco are the best team in the Country.

Right enough of the negativity, now onto some positives, it's a cup game, and we've somehow grinded our way through into the quarters, anything can happen in cup games, right????

Seriously though, both erse cheeks got put out with the likes of St Mirren, and the winners last season St Johnstone, lets do a St Johnstone and go all the way to lifting the cup this season. And believe me, if/when we beat Sevco i'll have us down to be league cup winners 2021/22 season.

Keep it tight again and hopefully score a goal or 2, and even taking it to pens and winning our 3rd pen shoot out, lets do this Livi, mon the Lions.

I’m sure we will try to frustrate them & if we can keep them out for long enough the rabid unwashed hordes may turn on them.

I suspect they will have too much for us after yesterday’s heroics.

Yeah couple of players went off injured yesterday, Jacko and McMillan, hope they're ok, esp Jacko, his delivery for Shinnie's goal was spot on.

Wonder if we'll set up the same again too, doubling up on the wings and Shinnie up front. Or we may need to use the likes of Anderson and Montano for fresh legs as they didn't play against Celtic. Williamson wont be allowed to play against his parent club, but Pittman can come back into the starting line up, or Forrest.

Martindale doing the mind games already for this game, hinting Shinnie wont play, probably, honest Slippy G we're no playing him, cross my hearts and hope to die, scouts honour we won't.

Not sure if they can replicate the shift they put in on Sunday.Having said that I feel weve nothing to lose here.Think there will be changes for this due to injuries etc.Davie will have a game plan in mind no doubt to frustrate them im sure.On the positive side we should make a decent financial gain here to go with Sundays so that bodes well for the coffers.Gerrard will have that first trophy on his mind no doubt.Would be spectacular if we threw a spanner in the works.Good luck Livi,give it your best shot..

Yeah Sevco are a different prospect than Celtic, plus it's at Ibrox. They're quick, and always looking to get free kicks and throw ins taken straight away, no lingering with them, it's non stop tempo. It'll be a very tough shift.

Davie hinting Shinnie wont play, but i've a feeling he will, if it's a case of him being asked how he feels, he isn't going to say he's knackered, with aches and pains, and miss out in a quarter final game against Sevco, in front of a decent sized crowd, on tv. Doubt it'll be in the same role as Sun though, Anderson will prob be back in there to do the hard shift chasing the ball about. Or maybe even Panayiotou, are we ever going to see him getting his chance to show us what he can do!

Omeonga will feature too, whether in the starting XI or from the bench, and from his interview he has a point to prove, wanting to show he has more to offer than what he did at Hibs. So looking forward to seeing how good he is for us.

We'll need a few rotations anyway, with another tough game at Tynecastle on Saturday.

Ryan Kent being out injured is good news for us too, always a tricky player to play against, and a threat in attack.

We can do this, mon the Lions.

Well knock me down with a feather we're starting with Shinnie up front again, DM and his mind games.

Livingston: Stryjek, Devlin, Obileye, Fitzwater, Penrice; Holt, Omeonga; Lewis, Bailey, Montano; Shinnie.

Substitutes: Barden, Longridge, Kelly, McMillan, Pittman, Forrest, Hamilton, Anderson, Panayiotou.

Bailey, Omeonga and Montano coming into the starting line up. I've liked the look of Montano, good to see him getting a start here.

Very strong Livi bench anyway.

Aye,3 strikers on it..

Stubborn first half from us but ok.Couple of chances for them but Max doing ok.Not one shot on goal from us as of yet.Hopefully a few to come.Boy Lewis didn't look happy to be subbed,but Mcmillen gives us something else.Boy Omeonga looks decent.Mon the Lions..

No complaints whatsoever. Their two,yes two strikers both scored.We didn't even have a shot on goal the whole game,says it all.Defence all over the place for their first followed by Maxs gift to fanny face for the second,although Max pulled off some cracking saves to keep the score down.Only positive I can take from this is the healthy cheque winging its way to Almondvale. Nevermind,diddy cup anyway.We move on and recover for Tynecastle.Chins up boys..

Pity about the individual errors. But realistically speaking they were, unsurprisingly, a class above.

I wasn't too mad at the referee for once though. He didn't get everything right but he seemed even handed. And lets face it, serial diving cheats like Hagi don't make it easy for them.

Aye ref wasn't too bad apart from keeping hs cards in his pockets a few times in the first half for tackles in through the back of our players.

Disagree with Troy on the no shots on goal says it all, we had 3 decent moves that just didn't come off with controlling the ball on the edge of their box, and inside their box, thin margins for us there. Thought we did well first half, but Hagi coming on turned the game, cut us open for their goal. Cheating diving wee prick though, and that rolling 3 or 4 times when he was fouled was just embarrassing.

2nd half we just didn't do enough, should've finished 1-0 but for Max having a suicide pass to fat boy. but the way we played we wouldn't have scored anyway, was like the final against St Johnstone, wasn't going to happen 2nd half. Needed to throw the dice and go 2 up front after going a goal down, really bugs me going out so meekly, again like the cup final, at least have a go. So what if they score 2 or 3 past us, turned out we gifted them their 2nd anyway and went out with a puff.

Anyways, that's us for the cup this season, hopefully have a decent run in the Scottish now.

Wel agree to disagree L/F.The stats say it all for me.As you say to go out so meekly was disappointing.Ibrox is a daunting place to go to at the best of times,but to not even test their goalkeeper was galling to watch.And many others agree unfortunately. We did well in patches,but defensive lapses have ultimately cost us.

Stats smats, look at the stats against Celtic, heavily in their favour, but we beat them, stats don't tell the full story.

We're both entitled to our opinion though Troy but i thought the first half we did ok, were making attacks and as i said, a few decent moves just didn't quite come off in and around their box, good first touch just evading us (but you don't get much time to do anything before their defenders hook it away). The ball in from our free kick wasn't offside either so no idea what the ref gave there, when we got onto it with just the keeper to beat. Think it's harsh just looking at the stats and saying we were pish.

2nd half though it just went tits up when Roofe scored. Normally i'd accept that with Max not making a complete aunt of it we lose 1-0, hats off to him making a good save later on though, as a 1-0 defeat, or even 2-0 wouldn't be too bad because GD may well make a big difference this season, but it was a cup game, and would've rather seen us just going for it a bit more in attack. Would've been good to see how we'd have got on with Anderson coming on alongside Shinnie, and going 2 up front, may well have worked and we get back into the game with a goal, or we could've got gubbed 4-0, we'll never know now.

So basically decent effort first half, could've done a lot better in the 2nd, would be my game report.

Morale wise, we're still going into the Hearts game in good shape, we didn't take a hiding at Ibrox and the players wont take much lifting to get up for the league game at Tynnie.

Never at any time did I say we were pishL/F.In fact I said that in patches we played some decent football.I don't normally take any notice of Stats but prepare to make my own assessment of what I've watched.Il leave that to the cretin on P&B who continues to spout his shite after most games unfairly imo.Anyway,hopefully we'll get this out of our system and give a good account of ourselves at Tynecastle..

Didn’t see the game but in principle I would agree that in a cup game go out with all guns blazing.

Fair enough if you try to keep it tight & frustrate but that game plan goes out the window when you go behind, because once you’re behind you’re on your way out. So change the game plan & go out in a blaze of glory ( or glorious failure).