Sevco v Livi

Not overly concerned about this game tbh.Il be more interested in whatching the other results coming in.That having been said,I hope our goal difference doesn't take a beating here.No idea how we're gonna set up,but I suspect it could be backs against the wall for most of the game.Hopefull we can keep the score respectable and have a go.Its a free hit and in that respect have nothing whatsoever to lose.Mon the Lions,surprise us all including me..

Just to edit the above.Reckon any bawhair chance we had for Saturday has surely gone after seeing who is in charge of the VAR for this game.FFS Greg fechin Aitken.Think il stay in bed for 24 hours then wake up from a bad dream.

Could be a record number of VAR awarded penalties!

Just hoping we put up a fight, hopefully Dundee get stuck in to them tonight and leave them with players not being fit for our game - don’t wish injury on anyone but I’m prepared to make an exception :

Nouble has to start up front, Guthrie just doesn't have the tools to play that role against Sevco, not sure he is able to play a lone striking role full stop, didn't look good playing against St Mirren. We saw how Nouble rag dolled their defence in our opening league game against them, they just couldn't handle him, so seems a no brainer playing him there again on Saturday. We're going to be playing most of the game in our own half and will need an out ball on the few occasions we can get it up the pitch, Nouble is absolutely the best player we have for hold up play taking the pressure of our defence.

So basically if Guthrie is in the starting XI i'll not even bother keeping an eye on the score and updates on twitter, he'd get bullied by their defenders and we'd have no out ball, Nouble starts up front and we'll have a chance of getting up the pitch and attacking their goal. Hopefully Omeonga is fit too, we'll need his combative style in midfield and he's the best midfielder we have for nicking possession off the opposition too, though young Kelly did a great job against St Johnstone, i'd rather have an experienced player like Omeonga in there, alongside Holt and Pittman, maybe even Sean Kelly too, and getting Fitzwater & Obileye in defence as our 2 CB's.

                                   
                                    George

Devlin             Fitzwater            Obileye             Montano


      Omeonga            Holt         Sean Kelly          Penrice


                                     Pittman

                                       
                                     Nouble

We'll need to defend set pieces a lot better than we did in our last game against them, that's where we're most vulnerable, with us playing a low block i think we can stop them getting shots at our goal in open play, we've done it before, the longer we frustrate them the better our chances will be, but at Ibrox they'll have the ref giving them just about every decision so it's a tall order taking something. Just hope Nouble can score again and give us something to hold onto, and for once the ref gives us a big decision we deserve. Mon the Lions, get right in about them.

Auld Nick wrote:Could be a record number of VAR awarded penalties!

Just hoping we put up a fight, hopefully Dundee get stuck in to them tonight and leave them with players not being fit for our game - don’t wish injury on anyone but I’m prepared to make an exception :

With Aitken on VAR it's red cards i'd be worried about, fecker absolutely loves sending Livi players off when he's officiating our games. He'll be watching for any excuse to flag up a sending off incident.

I was kind of hoping Scott Arfield might come down with a wee bug on Friday night making him unfit for Saturday. He loves to score against us.
Dundee made a decent fist of it tonight. I was willing them to score on one of their breakaways. The Bears were growling at the end of the game. That might make them more determined to do the business against us.
The big question is ,- if VAR is needed will it go for or against us.

I’m surprised you need to ask that Orco… it will go against us.

Thats a givin Nick..

Talking of VAR and it adding an extra dodgy official for us to cope with, tonight's Hibs v St Johnstone game should be something special with Kevin Clancy as ref, and Willie Collum on VAR, i'm tempted to watch it on PPV just for the rubber necking a car crash of guilty pleasure entertainment.

Not quite as strong a team as i had hoped for, Shinnie instead of Omeonga (must still be injured), and St Kelly instead of Penrice (actually still a good pick), but at least Nouble is playing up front as an out ball for us.




Always see Shinnie as a luxury player for us, good technical ability and experience, but not got the engine to produce the workrate we require from our players. Hopefully he scores and shuts me up.

3 strikers on the bench.Just about says it all.Dreading this tbh.

Troy wrote:3 strikers on the bench.Just about says it all.Dreading this tbh.

Yeah but this game is absolutely perfect for Nouble starting on his own up front, and he scores to give us a 1-0 lead.

Even Anderson wouldn't give us the out ball Nouble does, he's big and powerful enough to hold off Sevco defenders and get us up the pitch, they couldn't cope with him in our prev game against them either.

Lets be honest, we'll play most of the game in our own half, Anderson isn't suited for that, normally i'd want Anderson starting but not against the erse cheeks when they'll have more than 70% possession.

Not going to jinx this.Big Fitz puts that away and I'd be getting overly excited. Weve held our own defenceivly, but its Ibrox.At least the GD I spoke about will hopefully be favourable after this.Expect a response from Sevco 2nd half,but so far so good.

VAR upgrades a yellow to Boyes into a red… going to be a long last 15 mins or so

Lundstram equalises and 7 mins added… we are going to lose this

And the OCS has crashed…

1-1 FT - gutted to lose a late goal but a good point in the grand scheme of things

Auld Nick wrote:1-1 FT - gutted to lose a late goal but a good point in the grand scheme of things

Yep pre match you'd have bitten their hand off offering us a point, always feels gutting losing a goal in added time though, dropping 2 pts. Feel for our players and fans at the game, coming so close to holding on for the win.

However i agree, a point at Ibrox is a good result, also not getting any minus goals on our GD. Bodes well for the 2nd quarter of games, taking something off an erse cheek, hopefully same again next Sunday against Celtic, we'll have them after they've played Shakhter too, which should help us.

VAR decision was correct on Boyes, bit of a scunner all the decisions Sevco has had against us they shouldn't have got, and the first time we have VAR it's us that are found on the wrong side of a decision. Also with Aitken on VAR it was a nap he'd find something monitoring the game, he'd have been chafing at the bit looking for one.

God this is getting ridiculous. Watched the game at my Sevco friends house.Tried so hard to keep my emotions intact.Where to start. Terrific build up to big Joel putting us in front. Then Fitzwater glorious chance to put us 2 up first half.Not to be.Second half the proverbial onslaught. For me until I've seen it again,bearing in mind Greg Aitkin on duty at HQ.It looked bad in real time for Boys.End of the day a point at castle greyskull,albeit could have produced our first win at said place has to be commended. Magnificent effort from 10 men.And to those brave souls who witnessed it .

Guthrie injured with possible fracture to his leg, looks like his season is finished.

Shite for Guthrie but we might see more of Anderson now, with Martindale prob being forced into playing him.

Disagree about the red card. I've watched it several times frame by frame. Boyes makes contact with Morelos's foot not his calf. It was a definite foul and I wouldn't argue with the yellow. However imo what got him the change to red was Morelos rolling over and over after the contact was made. He wasn't hurt. After he got up he engaged the ref by pointing to his foot. That was all the excuse our old pal Greig Aitken needed to persuade the ref to change from yellow to red. Morelos was fine for the rest of the game.

Looks like he caught his ankle to me.

Yeah, ankle for me.

Liviforever wrote:Looks like he caught his ankle to me.

I've checked it again and I still can't see any contact with Morelos's ankle. It's more a stamp on his foot. In real time it happens very quickly so it's hard to be sure but when you take it frame by frame you can see what happened. VAR wouldn't have had time to do that. What made everyone's mind up was the Morelos reaction. I've always said that you can usually tell how sore a tackle is by the number of rolls on the ground by the one tackled. The more rolls the less serious it is.    Boyes himself was surprised to get the yellow, which it definitely was, and Morelos was up and about with no after effects - well apart from the habitual scowl and the push on Boyes as soon as the red was produced.

But it's history now and unfortunately our first experience of VAR was to our detriment. If it was last week the yellow would have remained. And who is to say Lundstrum wouldn't have scored anyway. Such is life as a Livi fan.