Livi v Hibs

Was feeling extremely confident we'd win this easily but the arrival of Boyle has changed things considerably for Hibs, giving them a potent goal scorer and winner of free kicks and pens, with his propensity for falling over in and around the opposition box. Cancar has the pace to cover his runs in behind us, but i'd worry about him staying on the pitch playing against such a master of the craft for falling over as Boyle.

I can see us sticking with Nouble as a No9 and Anderson remaining on the bench, shitfesting another narrow win, don't mind this tactical formation flooding midfield with an extra couple of players to try and nullify the oppositions attack on our goal when we play the erse cheeks, might even be a great tactic for a good cup campaign, it worked superbly for St Johnstone winning a cup double, but it's not a great spectacle in league games against fellow diddy teams. We're very blunt up front and have so far relied on 2 players scoring their first ever goals for us, can we continue to get away with that, will other players keep stepping up, is it Omeonga's turn to score, all the answers will be in this week's game against Hibs.

Actually quite impressed with Nouble's battering of CB in his forward role, just wish we'd play Anderson alongside him and seeing if we could have a big man, wee man lethal strike partnership. A Mark Hateley/Ally McCoist, Craig Brewster/ Stevie Crawford, Lyndon Dykes/ Stephen Dobbie, Joel Nouble/Bruce Anderson, mon Davie, you know it makes sense.

Hibs to their credit keep going until the final whistle as is evidenced by a couple of late injury time goals winning them all of their 4 points so far. They haven’t played well in either game but after a disaster of a league cup section they are unbeaten after 2 league games.

That said the winner against St Johnstone was somewhat fortuitous and the equaliser against Hearts was at the end of a spell where Hearts we’re unable to get the ball to stick up top when they cleared it; and the goal itself, while well worked from Hibs perspective, was poorly defended by Hearts.

Agree about Boyle & I would expect him to either score or con the ref into giving a pen. I think we are capable of winning this game but I fear our lack of potency up front may cost us.

Don't think Boyle had played a game since June, and has no pre season under his belt, so doubt he'd last the full 90 mins, may be used as an impact sub again.

Our pitch will be slow and sticky with this hot weather too, which should help stop Hibs trying to zip long balls down the wings.

Yeah, I realise he probably will be a sub but he will still fancy his chances of scoring and/or getting the opportunity to claim a pen

Really looking forward to this.Gonna be melting tomorrow, so shorts and t shirt order of the day.I suspect Davie will go along the lines of recently going one up front again meaning Bruce on the bench again.Possibly Goncalves getting a start but who knows with Davie.Hopefully we don't concentrate all our efforts on stopping Boyle,theve other players who can hurt us.Were on decent form and on our own patch will be a match for most in this league.Impose ourselves from the start and I reckon we could be good enough to take the points here.Our midfield will be integral to our chances and hopefully a clean sheet from big Jamal to continue our good start.Onwards and upwards. Do it Livi..

I see Davie saying he's looking to bring in another striker, strange when our top goal scorer can't get a game, and Goncalves is his back up and further down the pecking order, what chance will another striker have of getting game time.

Yeh,seen that.The rumour mill on P&B is up and running again from the usual suspects reprising the Sadio Berahino rumours.Yes as Davie has intimated he's open to free agent,and yes Berahino is one.But I'd be sceptical and surprised if he were to join us.I await with baited breath.‍�.

Liviforever wrote:I see Davie saying he's looking to bring in another striker, strange when our top goal scorer can't get a game, and Goncalves is his back up and further down the pecking order, what chance will another striker have of getting game time.

How long can we keep Nouble? (Scary thought )

orco wrote:

Liviforever wrote:I see Davie saying he's looking to bring in another striker, strange when our top goal scorer can't get a game, and Goncalves is his back up and further down the pecking order, what chance will another striker have of getting game time.

How long can we keep Nouble? (Scary thought )

Depends how he does till January, if he keeps the start to the league campaign going and can continue to body CB's for fun, set up goals for assists, and score a few too, he'd def be away the next window. Think the reason he's still here is failing to impress as a No9 target man last season, but his last 2 performances will have got a lot of notice from bigger teams in the SPFL Premiership. He absolutely roasted Sevco defenders, but i think clubs will be watching with interest to see if he consistently does it over the next 10/15 games.

Surprised if Utd wouldn't be taking a chance on him before this window ends right enough, absolutely the kind of player they're needing right now. Doubt we'd be interested in entertaining an offer from them though, we'll be looking for a decent amount of dosh.

The players will need to watch this referee. You may remember the first away game with Aberdeen when Longridge got two yellows in dubious circumstances. The same referee gave Nouble two dodgy yellows at home to St Johnstone a couple of months later after he had, as usual, been fouled all game.
Let's hope its about the football rather than the referee.

Wow,unbelievable how the team kept going,and got their collective reward was amazing.Such a foothold in that first half outplayed them in virtually every dept. Second half I genuinely thought we might implode after they equalised we searched for that we chink after Boyles blatant over exaggeration again which fortunately the official got it spot on for a change.One or two nearvy moments in the game but in reality should have increased our lead before they scored.Big shout out to our midfield. Holt,Pitts,and especially Omeonga which id hoped 24 hours ago had a major impact on this game came to fruition,no plaudits please.All in all to sum up.Shame all the bars were closed after the game.Would have seriously celebrated this result.And finally big shout out to our support today.Its growing slowly but surely. Great atmosphere in the West stand today regardless big Colin upstairs giving the Attendance as 3k.Think the big man needs a visit to Specksavers..Well done the Lions..

Well the ref did his best to disrupt our efforts - why did he not book Boyle for diving? Why did he consistently award them free kicks for falling over and not award them to us for the same thing? We did get 1 or 2 but nothing like what he gave them - but to no avail, very good win in the end.

Brilliant goal from Noobs again, went through them like a hot knife thru butter and nearly did it again later. First real quality ball from a set piece then set up Ayo for the winner. Least said about our defending for the Hibs goal the better.

I thought we were the far better side in the first half, we allowed them possession but just easily defended anything they offered and we looked far more dangerous than them when we went forward. Noobs skinned Hanlon with ease for the opener. Second half I thought we were very slow out the blocks and they grabbed the momentum to dominate the play and look more dangerous. Their number 23 caused us problems - looked like he got away with at least 1 occasion of the ball going out of play. When they equalised I feared they were going to push on and grab all 3 points but credit to the lads for digging in and grabbing the winner themselves.

Marshall made a good save from Brucie after tremendous play by Noobs and Bruce to fashion the chance. George had to make a save from #23 which looked a bit dodgy and lucky that it went over rather than in and he should have done better at their goal, as should the other guys who had the chance to clear it but Ayo placed his header well to grab the winner so all is good.

Yeah Bruce was unlucky not to score when Nouble took them apart and sent it through to him, hit Marshall's hand behind his body, lucky save.

Fantastic watching Nouble ghost past players like they aren't there, and adding goals to his game, what a player.

On the brief showing of Anderson coming on i'm bursting for Anderson to start games with Nouble, don't care what position they both play, but Martindale needs to let it happen, Anderson showed how quick he is to get his shots away and would thrive playing with Nouble. We could be killing teams off in the first half bagging 2,3,4 goals, instead of scoring just 1.

Brilliant start to the league for us though, and were robbed of a point against Sevco by the ref too, could be some season for us if we keep it going, and maybe even improve, we've got the players to win plenty of games, esp when they're all up and running, after say10 league games in.

Having watched the game back.Didnt realise at the time that for some unknown reason Nick Walsh was replaced by Craig Napier at the last minute. Thought he had a reasonably decent game.But having watched Boyles blatant dive for that accustomed penalty,which thank god he got right.A card would have more than merited.This should have been more comfortable if I'm being honest.But 6 points from 3 games,I'll take that..

Martindale admits on YouTube he was hoping to see what Noobs & Brucie can do together but doesn’t want it to become a long ball dominated game plan. So hopefully we will see them start together but I suspect it might be in a home game against someone in the bottom 3.

The one frustration I have about today… well 2 really… the slow start to second half was also a frustration but the main one was that whenever we took the game to them we ran them ragged and looked dangerous but we played a more reserved game, esp in the first half, letting them have possession and coping easily with their attempts. We were streets ahead of them in terms of bossing the game even when they had the ball in the first half, not so much in the second thanks to our slow start and their relatively quick equaliser.

The way it looks shape wise, Shinnie would be the one dropped for Anderson, i've no problem with that but not sure Martindale would want to do it.

Shinnie is good and sees passes others don't, at the speed he operates, but he doesn't have the energy and pace Bruce does pressing opposition players.

Part of our league success in the 3 games to date has been us flooding the midfield with Shinnie and Kelly playing in there too, but Pitts has been pushed further up and could drop back to let Bruce take that role, and again would be a better player in that position than Shinnie. Could also swap Kelly and Shinnie giving them a half each, noticed Kelly has a good first half but his energy levels drop a bit in the 2nd half.