Livi v Hearts

Hearts are on a good run but we beat them at Livi already and should beaten them at Tynnie, and we're on a good run ourselves, i'm going for 3 out of 3 with predicting another Livi win, only question is, who's going to get a brace for us this time?

Tough game and one i'm really looking forward to, 2-1 Livi, super Livi we're on our way, super Livi we're on our way...........

I'll take a draw.

Yes a draw would be more than acceptable but imagine what a win would do for confidence.

I suspect, however, we will suffer, because they are flying after hammering Aberdeen and cruising the derby cup tie.

Has the makings of a tasty game, we steadied the ship with those 2 home draws, and pushed on with 2 away wins, scoring 6 times too, we're going into this with a fair bit of fire in the team too. Now if only we could see Nouble on the bench and coming on for the final 20 mins.

Davie Martindale teasing us. https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/local-sport/livingston-striker-set-return-injury-29050222

Martindale said: “I should have Joel back for Sunday. I’m fairly confident he can make the bench

Aye but will he sit there all game or actually get on in the 2nd half and play for us......

40mph winds forecast for Sunday between 1.00pm and 4.00pm. Not before 1.00 and not after 4.00. Just when the game is on.

What is it with Livi games and bad weather?

Hopefully big Joel is back for this.Defence will really have to be at the top of their game here to take anything from this i reckon.Despite being at home I feel we will have no advantage for this so will be crucial to go at them from the start.Apparently 5k plus Jambos coming to this and on Sky.Should make for a good atmosphere and a few sheckles to the coffers to boot.Id take a point tbh if offered,although 3 would be exceptional. Mon the Lions..

orco wrote:40mph winds forecast for Sunday between 1.00pm and 4.00pm. Not before 1.00 and not after 4.00. Just when the game is on.

What is it with Livi games and bad weather?  

Pfft, Davies hair drying team talks blow harder than that.

Was looking for a win but a draw isn't to be sneezed at, extends our unbeaten run to 5 league games, 3 home draws and 2 away wins.

Wind made it a scrappy game, esp in the 1st half when we couldn't get the ball up past our halfway line from kick outs, and Hearts were hitting everything long. 2nd half Hearts were a lot more threatening and Shamal made a cracking double save when it looked like Hearts would score, and we had one cleared off their line after we chipped the keeper, so think a draw was fair enough.

Yeh,totally agree L/F.Its certainly not one for the memory bank.Reckon both teams cancelled each other out.Good clean sheet for Shamal,and for me Omeonga fully deserved his MoM award,some shift he put in.Dissapointing not to see big Joel not even on the bench today as well‍�.Oh well a point is better than none and keeps our wee run going,well till Wednesday anyway. Well done lads..

I thought we edged the first half without really threatening their goal. Second half they came at us more and Shamal earned his corn with the double save & another one low to his right. He also had to make a few easy saves, they may have been easy but he still had to stop them.

We had Bradley’s lob, Boyes’ belter, Guthrie’s low o/h effort and one or two headers. Again, Clark wasn’t really troubled by them (Bradley’s excepted as he had to rely on an excellent goal line clearance & Boyes’ would have stung his hands a bit) but had to make the saves.

All in all a decent point and a clean sheet.

Ref was, as is customary, worse than useless… how did 61 get away with making at least half a dozen fouls in one half and not get booked for persistent fouling? Why did Hearts get fouls for things that we didn’t get fouls for? Very uneven from the ref.

Yeah Kuol should've had at least a yellow for his late foul on Penrice, not to mention coming in late on George too. Penrice was getting fouled late a few times in the first half too. Was thinking VAR had just been switched off with no interventions coming to the ref telling him to go look at the monitor. Not seen Sportscene yet, to see it they look at some of those fouls, and Anderson's penalty claim. Kuol was worse than Cancar with his rash challenges.

They didn’t highlight any of them. Didn’t think Bruce’s pen claim was a pen at the time myself and was only a half hearted (no pun intended) appeal. The lad that cleared Bradley’s lob had some game though. I believe he got the Sky MotM and even knowing the result, when the ball clears Clark it looks like it’s in all the way, it really was a brilliant clearance by the lad, who then ended up in the back of the net himself but was back up on his feet and on the goal line before anything else major happened.

Aye he was putting in good blocks and tackles all game for them, as much as i don't like Chochrane (the dirty git that went in late on Devlin at Tynnie and didn't get sent off for it, or even given a foul against him), he was excellent at volleying every ball in midfield and getting good contact on it, didn't fluff a volley once.

Still a bit worried when i see a high ball coming towards Boyes when he's the last man of defence, but thought he had a good game yesterday, good on the deck timing his tackles and enjoyed seeing him driving towards goal and having a dig, something our forwards should've been doing more. He's growing on me.

Still don't rate Guthrie though, very uncontrolled on the ball, and for his size he isn't very good at holding off opposition player, an anti Nouble really.

Guthrie really annoys me. I always get the impression that he is only here until something better comes along. There's a laziness about him. It was particularly noticeable yesterday when playing alongside Brucie who chases everything. He also goes down too easy then spends time moaning instead of getting up and on with it. Time he did something to impress me. There's been nothing so far

From what I saw of his highlight reel when we signed him, it didn’t show him as a target man but as some one who can shoot and feed on scraps, we don’t play him that way. Let’s face it, we picked him up from the lower leagues down south, so unless you unearth a gem like Nouble then you’re getting a journeyman & you are hoping he has a career breakthrough.