Livi v Aberdeen (League Opener)

Read this in an article; Aberdeen manager "Robson has a striker headache" going into this game, with Duk, Miovski (both scoring 18 goals last season) and new signing Sokler (has 5 goals in pre season friendlies).

Well it's fair to say our defence will be tested in this game then.

The opening 2 games are real toughies, was hoping we'd maybe have a wee advantage with them not having played competitive games, but seems Aberdeen's strikers are flying (in pre season games), think even 2 draws would be an excellent start to the season for us, will be a good game to gauge how we are looking for the season ahead though, if our defence can hold fast against them i'll be delighted and full of optimism. 1-0 Livi, with Aberdeen absolutely battering us all game and Brucie nicking it at the end to take all 3pts (they've done a snatch and grab on us often enough, would love to do it to them for a change).

Mon the Lions, lets go maul those sheep.

Yeah, I was hoping our competitive games might have given us an advantage going into this one but nothing I saw in the 3 games I got to gave me any confidence that we will be able to use that advantage assuming it exists.

A draw would be more than acceptable as it would keep the “unbeaten in 90 mins” record going.

Actually looking forward to this on Saturday, well till 3 o'clock at least.Would bite your hand off for a draw.Not confident of even getting that tbh.Aberdeen will see this as an opportunity to get off the mark with 3 points,and I fully expect them to do so.Unless there's a massive turn around in our play.Clutching at straws,but if we catch them cold we might just get something. With Livi underperforming you just don't know.Hopefully not too hostile come 4 45pm.Its back so brace yourselves. .

Just to edit the above post.Just heard Brother Beaton is the ref for Saturday and Greg Aitken the VAR official.Now I'm not suggesting this will have an impact on the game but FFS!!!.

Aitken and Dallas are apparently the dedicated VAR officials… heaven help us all!

As I have mentioned many time the clowns with whistles are now clowns with technology.

Dunno where you got that info from Nick but the SFA website has this as the officials for our game.

I read it somewhere but can’t remember where, may have been Sky Sports “ticker tape” news or somewhere online.

Here you go… not what I saw originally but it shows I’m not imagining it…

https://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/23698785.andrew-dallas-greg-aitken-appointed-first-dedicated-vars/

I'd still go with the SFA website on who our officials are, i doubt you can have the same 2 doing VAR for every match at the same time.

Just checked the official website again for the Celtic match and Greg Aitken is on VAR there, Dallas will prob be doing the Sevco game.

Yep, Dallas is on VAR for Killie v The Rangers, with Collum as the ref.

Dallas and Aitken - two of the worst referees in recent times. They obviously couldn't hack the physical effort of running up and down the pitch and dealing with the cat calls from fans. So a good little earner in the VAR room now where you can drink tea and pontificate on decisions at will without having to deal with shouts from a crowd.
Nice work if you can get it. #refereemafia.

Red card for a Livi player Aitken on VAR for another 20 years, oh joy. Also means Collum could go onto VAR for a couple of decades after he's too old to referee games on the pitch, who the hell voted for VAR!!!


On a more positive note, big Shamal was only suspended for one game and has served it against St Johnstone last season, so will be ok to to play tomorrow.

Absolute loved watching us today, felt like the old livi, dictated how the game was played, dragging Aberdeen into a battle, and winning most of the 2nd balls. Pressed Aberdeen all over the pitch and hardly gave them a sniff of a shot on our goal.

The back 3 seems to be working a treat, this is the first real test and we passed with flying colours, keeping a clean sheet against 2 strikers that scored 36 goals between them last season.

Feared the worst when i saw Nouble & Guthrie were starting up front, but the difference this season is, everyone is getting in the opposition players faces, 100% commitment from the players, and we could even have nicked all 3 pts, which i think we would've deserved, for just shaving it on chances.

At last Brandon got started on the right, surely has it nailed down now, Montano takes some amount of hits, but it's good having Penrice as cover. Sangare had a good game but had to come off at HT after taking a couple of late challenges, same with Montano, hopefully Bruce is ok too, another late challenge that saw him stretchered off, and straight to the hospital.

On the whole we're looking a lot harder to play against then last season, good defensively, and all over the pitch, very pleasing to see.

While I was pleased with the overall performance I thought a draw was about right. Either team could have won it but we defended well and pressed well. Still think Noobs is not as effective as last season but there was a ridiculous foul given against him for a fair shoulder to shoulder challenge that left the paper-weight Don on the deck, never a foul. He was also having his shirt pulled all game and getting nothing.

Beaton was useless most of the time but gave bad decisions both ways… that said the first yellow of the day would have been a red if it had been us on them, it was worse than the Holt & Pitts reds from last season & Devlin’s foul on Montano in the second half should also have been reviewed.

I thought Guthrie had another good game, hopefully his injury wasn’t serious, same with Montano but the big worry is Bruce… he was superb when he came on and the last thing we need is him to be out for a lengthy spell.

Sangare played well but after his yellow he had another couple of challenges that could have had Beaton reaching for his pocket again. Pitts also played well as his replacement. Likewise Penners did well replacing Montano. The only sub that didn’t really have much impact was Mackay but then he only had the added time after Bruce was taken off on the stretcher & he did press.

I’d have had Devlin as our MotM ahead of Obileye but all 3 of the back line played well.

Definitely a massive improvement on the cup performances.

Noticed quite a few ex-Livi lads on the scoresheet today, including Gavin Reilly who managed to score two penalties… get him back quick!!

Hearing Bruce has a cut head and suspected broken ribs, their player came in late on him and only went down himself to try and avoid a sending off, and Beaton bought the act.

Prob be Nouble starting up front as a lone striker next week against Sevco, but MacKay might get a shot at it for the last 20 mins. Nouble usually ups his game against them though, if playing in front of 50 thousand fans doesn't give him incentive nothing will.

Not long in after celebrating a draw against Aberdeen.Yeh,il hold my hands up by saying I expected a pumping from the sheep.That certainly didn't happen.Spoke to some Aberdeen fans after the game who were in their eyes played the better football .Some people just won't learn.We were by far so resolute and indeed and as has been said a we bit unfortunate to come away with all 3 points in that game.Usually try and shy away from officials decisions. But today was the epitome of the ineptitude of those said aforementioned. Beaton again was up to his usual standard of refereeing. Tackles flying in including our former captain on Montano and their no 3 on Bruce with no action taken on both instances.Abhorant to say in the least,not forgetting the treatment meated out to Guthrie who incidently had a blinder today.Hopefully Bruce is relatively ok and heard the final score.Would have been criminal for him to be on the losing side after that.Agree,Brandon De Lucas Ayo etc had blinders.All in All,a terrific team effort which bodes well for the coming weeks.Not getting carried away,but those kind of performances might just make me re evaluate my prediction for the coming season.Well done for proving me wrong,again. .

Considering the team that Robson has put together I'm satisfied with the point.

Aberdeen kicked us off the park and got away with murder. Yet every dive on their part was rewarded with a free kick. It has now become accepted wisdom in Scottish football that Livi are a big physical team. That seems to give licence to opposition teams to foul the likes of Nouble without punishment being applied. Referees have also got this into their heads and before a ball is kicked they seem to have decided that every 50/50 ball goes against us and that every time an opposing player goes down we must have fouled them. It happens every season and I suppose we should be used to it by now but It still gets me raging.

One thing that did surprise me today was that VAR didn't find a reason to punish us.

After watching Sportscene and listening to how much they didn't enjoy watching the game, then blaming the pitch, yep, absolute nonsense from them but i love it. Means we're in everyone's heads again, they hate playing us, and the pundits are so blind to how we play.

There's a world of difference between pressing and being in their faces winning the 2nd balls to going about kicking everyone, but they can't seem to fathom that out, and opposition managers get their players that psyched up playing us they lose their own way of playing and get into a physical battle with us, which we're going to win, not by knocking the shit out of them, but playing the game how we want it played, and we're better than them playing that way.

Total nonsense it was brutal to watch, i really enjoyed it, don't give a feck if these clowns think only Barcelona type football is good to watch, we'll keep playing how we want to and they will hate playing us, they don't like it up em.