Aberdeen v Livi

Despite the defeat to Motherwell, and us playing fairly turgid stuff, it was down to a blatant refereeing error we lost that game, that's 2 bad ref decisions denying us being udefeated in the league after 4 games. So basically if the ref doesn't screw us again, i think we'll win this game, or at least get a draw.

Hopefully Bruce is ok to play, seems to have a weak ankle with this being the 2nd time he's gone over on it and injured himself this season, when not even playing a game. He likes scoring a goal against his former team though, so fingers crossed he's fit to play. Will be interesting to see how DM sets us up for this, after saying he was going to make some changes in our shape, hopefully a more attacking set up and we score a few goals. Getting someone playing up beside big Nouble, if Bruce isn't available i wouldn't mind seeing Mullin getting a start, playing up beside him.

No chance, away from home it will be the same old same old line up (injuries permitting).

Heading up for this one with my two sons and the oldest missus of two months who just happens to be a Dons fan courtesy of her Aberdonian dad.

I suspect she will be happier than us heading home although we have nothing to fear.

Yeh,agree.Despite Davies protestations of changing the team,I suspect it will be the same again unfortunately. I'm loath to critisizing the team,but the lack of offense was so dissapointing last week against an arguably poor Well team was tough to take.Hopefully weve put that to bed and get back to being that team we know that we are.Bruces situation reminds me of Calum Wilson down at Newcastle. We can't wrap them in cotton wool,but the continuance of regular injuries is frustrating and worrying.Hearing rumours that Hearts are showing an interest in big Joel,hope to god its just rumours. Really would be disastrous if we were to lose him.Going to be such a tough game up there tomorrow .Hopefully an improvement on last week, just don't lose Livi,although I have my doubts.Prove me wrong again lads.Good luck..

Listening to the sheep fella on the Livi podcast talking about his team, it sounds like they're ideal for us playing the same way as we did against Sevco and Hibs, they'll come at us full on and are shite in defence, exactly the way Hibs and Sevco play and we managed to do well in both those games, even should've had a draw against Sevco had the ref done his job properly.

I think our midfield will match anyone if they're on top form pressing wise, which protects our defence a good bit, and big Joel will get more joy getting in behind their back line when they're throwing players up front. Would still like to see Mullin and Anderson on at some point, or at least Josh if Bruce is injured still. But think Davie's plan A would work well enough in the first half to stifle them and hit on the counter with balls up to Joel.

Cant believe we're behind here.Chances not taken,especially Obiley. Moment of madness from Fitzwalter.Aberdeen coming on strong.Dont know we can change this.Same old story,dominate and nothing to show for it.Depressing..

Ive switched off with 12mins to go.Down to ten men.Was hard enough when we didn't take our chances in the first half,but utter horror show from us here.No complaints overall.We all knew Aberdeen were going to turn a corner.Davie will be predictable post match,so will give that a severe body swerve.And as I write Aberdeen put in their 5th.Sorry guys,wheres the fridge Predictable. .

Ooft, biggest humping from a non erse cheek team for a good while.

OK,I've calmed down after that shambles.Can someone tell me why teams persist with this playing the ball out to the 18 yard box when invariably it leads to putting your defence under severe pressure.Today being the classic example. Who is responsible for telling keepers to keep doing this.Its fechin shambolic.Just punt it up the park .Teams must know theve a helluva chance should a cock up ensue.Schoolboy stuff,but seems to be happening with worrying regularity.Shocking.

But..but..but Man City and Real Madrid do it this way so we should too.

With respect Orco,we ain't Man City or Real Madrid.Its a continuous continuation where teams have been undone with this .I absolutely hate to see it so repetitivey. The sending off albeit so fortunate as I've said due to the afore mentioned ridiculous tactic of playing out from the back has to stop.Will we learn,I suspect not.Seems to be the normal game.Talk about a game changer???..

Managers get sucked into this way of playing football, thinking if you don't do it you aren't a very good team. We've changed our style that got us promoted, and successfully kept us up a few seasons too, of making sure we don't get caught out in our own half and getting it quickly into our opponents half then pressing the ball off them and playing it in their half.

I actually don't mind us playing it out from the back, but only when it is safe to do so, if not then get it booted up from the goalie and don't put pressure on our defenders. It invariable ends up back at the keeper anyway, then he has to panic clear it as opposition strikers are rushing at him.

For 40 mins we were miles better than them, the only thing missing was a goal. Once again a poor show in front of goal, we are simply not clinical enough & we are continually playing without a recognised goal scorer. I love big Joel but scoring is not the strongest part of his game & I now think it is unfair on him to be expecting it, he needs a foil to play alongside.

The drinks break didn’t help us either as it gave Goodwin the opportunity to tweak what they were doing and they began pressing our goal kicks more effectively which then led to the first pen and red card.
I will need to see it on TV before being sure but I thought Fitz probably did foul Vinnie the Diver but he should never have been put in that position. As Troy mentioned, we consistently put ourselves under unnecessary pressure by playing it out when it wasn’t safe to do so.

There is a seed of doubt in my mind as to whether it was a foul simply because it was Vinnie the Diver who was involved… I’m also not 100% convinced it should have been a red card, I’m pretty sure the ball was going to George before VtD would have had anything like a scoring chance.

However, having said all that… the situation was entirely self imposed and so we found ourselves 1 down and reduced to 10 men. That we almost equalised through Montaño on our next attack speaks volumes about us being the better side at that point.

Second half? Shocking. We tried to minimise the damage but seemed to have no ambition to equalise. We offered nothing in an attacking sense whatsoever. I know we were down to 10 but 10 can sometimes beat 11, especially when they are a better team. We were better than them first half so why change the game plan? Also, DM has been waxing lyrical about Kelly being able to play anywhere in the team… so why was he sacrificed for Cancar? Cancar played the second half like a headless chicken, persistently getting sucked in and beaten on the turn & as a result gave away the second pen - again, not convinced there was a foul but by being spun and then diving in with a slide tackle he gave the forward the opportunity to go over and gave the ref a decision to make.

I remain unconvinced about George, his decision making when playing it short is woeful. He put Fitz under ridiculous pressure at the incident which brought the opening goal & that was always on the cards once they really started pressing properly when he played it short.

Spoke to a few Dons fans after the game, one was hugely impressed by Omeonga & the other comments were that the penalty and red card changed the game in their favour as up to then we had bossed it.

Hopefully United get another doing tomorrow & we can get past them on Wednesday so that we are up for the game against Hearts next week, if not we will be staring at the bottom end after such a promising start to the season.

On the 2 pens, Fitzwater was trying to shield the ball and got beaten, wit the Dons player getting in front of him, but looks like his legs are tangled with Fitz and he goes down, accidental foul and pen but don't think it's a red card.

Cancar's one is him sliding in to block a shot, the Don's player pulls out of shooting and stands on Cancar's legs and goes down, again prob a foul as even though it isn't intentional he slides on and the boy gets taken down because of it, unlucky i think as he gets up quickly to get the ball, just unfortunate catching him.

The pass out by George is still risky with Aberdeen having players close enough to press the ball, but Fitz makes a complete arse of it, too slow making his mind up and then trying to shield it instead of just getting rid of it. However as i said before, his only option was to pass it back to George then try to block the guy running past him to give George a bit more time to boot the ball away. So why not just kick it up the pitch to start with.
I fail to see the benefit making a pass out to a defender when it's so obv he's going to have to pass it straight back to you, and then you'll be under pressure kicking the ball too.

Only going by sportscene and posts i've read from both sets of fans, and it looks like we were well in control of the game, and as Bertie said we failed to put our chances away, Mullin is prob our best goal scorer after Anderson, and he isn't getting near the pitch playing, shitfesting a one goal win isn't working now, time to change tactics now, we need to get another attacking goal scorer in the starting XI, really don't know why Martindale isn't playing Mullin, he'll end up leaving us and coming back to haunt us with a rival team snapping him up.

Just watched Sportscene. The Aberdeen player played for the penalty. Fitzwater didn't argue because he knew there was no point and at that stage he realised he had been an idiot for not booting the ball out of the park.
We are so due a dodgy penalty.

After watching Sportscene myself… I’m inclined to agree with your pen assessments LF but I hate that the second one is given more than the first because it’s the attacker who deliberately makes contact in order to go down… they are almost always given but I still hate that they are. I also agree with Orco that Vinnie the Diver played for the first one but that’s his game, in this instance his immediate pressure on Fitz forced his error & it was a pen. However, as I’ve said, it was entirely avoidable and self inflicted.

The guys on Sportscene questioned DM’s comments about George’s decision making to give the ball to Fitz… pointing out we were setting up for the short kick out… but completely overlooking that the keeper can change his mind and wave the players upfield and also overlooking the fact that Fitz wasn’t set to receive the pass, so George had 2 bad decisions, firstly to play it short rather than wave them away and go long and secondly to play it to a player not ready to receive it.

Auld Nick wrote:……

Hopefully United get another doing tomorrow & we can get past them on Wednesday so that we are up for the game against Hearts next week, if not we will be staring at the bottom end after such a promising start to the season.

Well they got an even bigger doing than I expected… only snag now is they might punt Ross and get a bounce

Auld Nick wrote:

Auld Nick wrote:……

Hopefully United get another doing tomorrow & we can get past them on Wednesday so that we are up for the game against Hearts next week, if not we will be staring at the bottom end after such a promising start to the season.

Well they got an even bigger doing than I expected… only snag now is they might punt Ross and get a bounce

It was after we beat Hibs that Ross got punted the last time wasn't it?

Faf if we do it to him again......you're getting sacked in the morning...........

Yes it was