Pre Season Friendlies

Alloa up tomorrow, for a first look at our new signings, and if our defence is any better.

I await your full unbiased report with glee

Spoke to Pitts at the stadium this lunchtime. He'd just finished training.Said the new lads we're up for this and can't wait to get underway.Hopefully a positive vibe going into the new season.By the way,cracking Mercedes he drives.Lucky man.

Hard to guage as it was the first run out for the lads.So many trialists.But I thought we virtually dominated the game and deserved the win,albeit a mix near the end made it more nearvy than it should have been.Steven Kelly's goal a peach and worth the admission.Good to see Stephan Scougall back here.Forgot he was still at Alloa.Took a sore one to,hope he's ok.Incidently,don't understand why we were all punted to the North side off the main stand.Strange viewing the game from where I normally sit.Also,both bars closed with no explanation didn't help either.Il get my coat.

I was sitting in my usual seat, behind the away dugout in B3.

Yeah a lot of trialists, dunno if we've signed some of them but not got their registrations done yet, not familiar with the new faces yet.

Keeper was good with his distribution, and comfortable with the ball at his feet, a little too much so at times, as he dribbled the ball out of his box and passed to a Livi outfield player.

No6 looked solid when he came on for Nottingham, who also did a decent job against Connor Salmon.

Only player i had concerns over was our No12, didn't look good enough on this showing, hope we haven't signed him.

Wee Lawal looked impressive, a touch of Omeonga about his play, strong ball winner for a wee guy, and good on the ball, always looking to push forward.

Yeah Kelly's goal was a cracker, got an excellent view as he hit it, could see it was heading into the net. Pitts was good too.

Not liking Montano playing as a CB though, hopefully that was just because this was a friendly, his strength is on the left as a FB, getting on the ball making surging runs up the wing.

Liviforever wrote:I was sitting in my usual seat, behind the away dugout in B3.

Yeah a lot of trialists, dunno if we've signed some of them but not got their registrations done yet, not familiar with the new faces yet.

Keeper was good with his distribution, and comfortable with the ball at his feet, a little too much so at times, as he dribbled the ball out of his box and passed to a Livi outfield player.

No6 looked solid when he came on for Nottingham, who also did a decent job against Connor Salmon.

Only player i had concerns over was our No12, didn't look good enough on this showing, hope we haven't signed him.

Wee Lawal looked impressive, a touch of Omeonga about his play, strong ball winner for a wee guy, and good on the ball, always looking to push forward.

Yeah Kelly's goal was a cracker, got an excellent view as he hit it, could see it was heading into the net. Pitts was good too.

Not liking Montano playing as a CB though, hopefully that was just because this was a friendly, his strength is on the left as a FB, getting on the ball making surging runs up the wing.

I think there was only two trialist today. Numbers 14 and 16
All “trialists” below were reportedly signed.
Trialist no 1 was Jerome Prior
Trialist 6 was Reece McAlear
Trialist 11 was Lewis Smith
Trialist 12 was Robbie Muirhead
Trialist 19 was Daniel Finlayson

12 - didn’t look good enough but it turns out he was Muirhead who bagged about 17 goals for Morton… oh dear, please don’t tell me our coaching methods are curbing natural instincts

Auld Nick wrote:12 - didn’t look good enough but it turns out he was Muirhead who bagged about 17 goals for Morton… oh dear, please don’t tell me our coaching methods are curbing natural instincts

Yeah he seems to have hit a purple patch the last couple of seasons under Imrie, 13 goals one season and then 17 the next.

When we first announced we were signing him i read Morton fans saying he was lazy and drifted in and out of games, and i did wonder how that would work under Martindale's style of coaching. He's all about fitness and workrate, but that seems a total contrast on Muirhead's style.

Similar to when Kriss Boyd played for Scotland, got away with his lazy approach at club level because he scored loads of goals for Rangers and Killie, but just became a passengers in the Scotland team, because he was required to do the work himself, and not rely on others getting the ball to him.

It's a bit of a worry Martindale will coach the prolific goal scorer out of him, and we'll be left with a player that hasn't much else to offer.

I mean would we rather have a player that runs about daft and doesn't score any goals, or a lazy arse who gets us 15-20 goals this season. Or even worse, a lazy arse that is useless and doesn't score any goals because of the way we're coaching him.

He's bigger than I had thought and a bit cumbersome.Not sure if him and Yengi would be our strikeforce for next season.Teti needs someone smaller and pacier beside him to be effective, especially in the championship.‍�.

Troy wrote:He's bigger than I had thought and a bit cumbersome.Not sure if him and Yengi would be our strikeforce for next season.Teti needs someone smaller and pacier beside him to be effective, especially in the championship.‍�.

Not sure i'd agree Troy, as long as he keeps scoring goals. 17 for an average Morton is excellent, we need to be using him properly, which is exactly what we failed to do last season with Anderson. Yengi is more suited to assisting than scoring, if Muirhead can score goals then Yengi is ideal for setting him up. Not got a clue how he plays though, but if we've signed him you'd assume we've watched him and know exactly how best to get him provided to score goals.

Imrie certainly knew how to do that anyway. Otherwise what's the point signing him, we don't need to change how he plays in an attempt to improve him, he's already playing at this level and knows how to score. At 28 he's a bit past the development stage too, and why try to fix something that works and isn't broken.

We'll agree to disagree L/F.Yes he scored those goals for Morton.But to have two big guys up front is arguably debatable.Morton fans and others have warned us about him.Davie said last night were looking to bring in another striker at least,i await with bated breath Lol.‍�.

Troy wrote:We'll agree to disagree L/F.Yes he scored those goals for Morton.But to have two big guys up front is arguably debatable.Morton fans and others have warned us about him.Davie said last night were looking to bring in another striker at least,i await with bated breath Lol.‍�.

Aye must be good moaning about a player that scored 17 goals, we should be so lucky.

We've a striker signed that wasn't in the squad yesterday, Ricky Karboa 5"10, Liam Sole wasn't there either, think he's a winger.

Remember the season we had 4 strikers we used to play in some games, starting 2 then subbing them off for the other 2 in the 2nd half. Kenny Deuchar, Iain Russell, Robbie Winters, and Mark McNulty, plus Rafa as a winger or a forward. Oh for that abundance of riches in quality this season.

Looking forward to seeing Karboa.Sounds promising.Might see a couple of them on Tuesday night against Broxburn .

Karboa and Sole should be playing tonight, along with Yengi, so we should see a more attacking side against Broxburn, with pace down the wings, esp if the CB from Brighton plays, and allows Montano to play down the left wing.

I liked the look of Prior with his distribution, but it'll be Shamal in goals tonight. Prior gives us a quicker counter attack, quick and accurate with his kicks, which will make a change from a big punt in the air that usually goes to a CB or out for a throw in.

Looking forward to this evening. Local rivalry of sorts.Suspect wel see chops and changes throughout, like Saturday. Beats being stuck in the Hoose watching Engurlind..

So how was it? Uninspiring victory or signs of potential?

Must've been exciting stuff, nobody wanting to talk about it.

Reading the twitter commentary, i see Muirhead had about 10 shots on goal, and missed every one of them, suppose it's an improvement on the last game right enough, that he's getting involved in the box.

Good seeing St Kelly getting another goal, sign of things to come from him this season.

Pre season friendlies are notoriously hard to judge.I was there and fwtsw a decent run out for the team.Decent turn out as well,with the lads in C section giving it a good atmosphere to boot.Credit to Broxburn for making a game of it.7 trialists again as it was on Saturday had us scratching our heads as to who was who.Livis two goals were absolute peaches from Steven Kelly and a trialist who I found out was Winters,great strikes from both.The Broxburn keeper pulled off a couple of decent saves to keep the score down as well.Was strange seeing big Stretch in the away dugout,I guess that's the pastures new he was moving on to.Still early doors for us,suspect its about fitness and getting up to speed,which essentially is what these games are about.Good luck to Broxburn in their first season in the Lowland League. we move on..

Wasn’t a great performance, Livi were always in control but didn’t create a lot until Broxburn started to tire. Thought Lawal looked promising, likes to take the ball on the half turn and first thought is to drive forward. He linked up well with Clarke down the left and most of the danger was coming from that side. Winters took his goal well but it’s hard to say if he’d be a good signing at Championship level. Kelly had a similarly good strike but his passing was a bit off most of the night. Muirhead’s finishing wasn’t great but he didn’t look as bad as the Morton fans have been making out. McAlear looks a big unit, dunno if that’s his natural size or if he just enjoyed the off season too much. Not sure if his passing is good enough for the quarterback position he started in though. Smith and Sole both had some good touches after they came on. Not sure who the trialist no 5 centre half was, he saw a lot of the ball but wasn’t tested much defensively. Also dunno who came on as trialist no 9, played in deep midfield and sprayed the ball around well. It’ll be interesting to see what Davie sees as his starting eleven this season, we’re accumulating a fair old size of squad.

No5 was prob the CB from Brighton, yeah Lawal is coming out of these friendlies as the surprise package, didn't look anything that stood out last season when he got the odd game, but certainly has done in these games so far.

Wasn’t sure if the centre half from Brighton was no 5 or no 14 since I didn’t recognise either. Lawal gives a directness which was missing last season, looks like Sole may be similarly willing to take men on too. At least the signs are promising for a more exciting style of play, there was very little lumping the ball up the park last night.

Wasnt at the game today.But going by Twitter & reports a few gilt edged chances not taken.Others will clarify. Still pre season friendlies notorious to call.Last time I was at Spartans was across the road at City Park.Fernandez ran riot.Still unbeaten pre season
Should I look to much on this?.Thought not!

Needed Kelly to get us a goal, but he wasn't playing today. 2 in 2 from our first two games. Wee Lawal wasn't in the squad either, we're rotating players getting them all game time still.

Yeam mates son went and said it was pretty pish to watch. We're also playing them in the cup so maybe didn't want to give anything away, seen us cancel pre season games when we draw teams in the cup before.

Rice’s aftermatch assessment was too many passes going sideways and backwards

Livi have cruised to a 4-0 lead after 67 minutes
Muirhead from Sole
Sole from Muirhead
Triallist
Nottingham from Kelly