Bairns v Lions.

Such a tester for us over in Grangemouth tomorrow night.Still don't think we're ready to take them on their own patch.They slipped up against Raith,but stamped their credentials against Ayr.Theve an offense who can damage us,whereas we just don't take chances predominantly when offered.Hearing theve one or two injuries, but regardless they'll be a handfull imo.TBH I'd take a point and get the hell out of there.Save ourselves for times ahead when we finally gel.Anyway,Mon the Lions.

We’ll be lucky to escape on the wrong end of 2-0

Yeah if we'd got them earlier in the season i fear we'd have taken a right doing, we might still, but we're a lot more settled in defence now.
In other areas of the pitch we're still not at our best, and those loose passes are going to be pounced on by Falkirk. They create lots of chances but don't score as many as they should, however they will score at some point if we keep giving them the ball in our half. They also press high, and we like to play it out from the back, which is a worry.

Despite my concerns, i'm still looking forward to seeing how we get on, they're pretty much at their best, even with some injuries, whereas we're still improving, so getting something from this would be a great result for us.

I’ve got a bad feeling about this one. Our away form has been poor, the only league win was the one we stole at Raith after being outplayed. I can see Falkirk all over us in the first half and us barely getting out of our own half. We could really do with Sole starting as an out ball to counter with his pace. If we get to the break level then anything could happen in the second half but I fear we may be a couple of goals behind by then. Falkirk’s energy and aggressive attacking style just doesn’t bode well with our passiveness and lack of intent.

Prove me wrong, Livi!

Yep Sole and May would give us an out ball to counter attack, we're far too slow bringing it out of our own half to counter. Montano would also give us a player that can drive forward from our own half and get us up the pitch, will Sole and Montano start though, doubt it.

Can see Montano replacing Clarke, and Shinnie for Muirhead as our changes from the Partick game. Shinnie to give us a safer option on the ball, he doesn't give many passes away. However the best way to pin Falkirk's wide players back, is to have Sole and Montano playing against them, forcing them back. At worst they'd nullify each other's threat, and make Falkirk think a bit more about committing their wide players forward.

Would also like to see Lawal playing, he's good at turning over possession, reminds me of how Omeonga plays. Never going to happen though, we'll play our usual conservative first half, not wanting to risk it going forward.

My preferred starting XI for this game would be.

                                    Prior

Finlayson         McGowan         Nottingham              Clarke*

           Pittman            Lawal             Brandon          

           Sole                 May               Montano*  

Giving us good defensive back 4, a disruptive 3 in midfield, with Lawal who like to get the ball forward, and 2 good wide players either side of May.

*i was conflicted in keeping Clarke at LWB and Montano in the front 3, to having Montano at LWB and leaving Muirhead in front 3, having Sole opposite. I'd be quite happy with either.

What i think we'll get is this;

                                         Prior

Finlayson              McGowan        Nottingham             Clarke/Montano

              Pittman            Brandon             Kelly

               Smith                 May         Shinnie

With Smith and Shinnie getting pinned back helping in defence, and May left isolated up front, having to chase about trying to press Falkirk's defenders all by himself.

I fear your second team is the one we’ll go with but with Clarke at left back. The bravado about letting other teams worry about us this season will be out the window tonight. Lawal won’t be sighted unless we’re a few goals behind. It’ll be a night of trying to frustrate Falkirk and the dark arts.

The bravado about letting other teams worry about us is exactly that. If that was the case we’d be more aggressive from the kick off and just steam roller teams.

Decent turn out by the fans of both sides tonight but for us it was the least noise I’ve heard at an away game. Maybe too late a night for the weans that rattle the drum and chant through a megaphone.

Well he only went and picked the team we all wanted…and guess what it didn’t make a blind bit of difference. We still were slow and laborious in the build up. We still failed to give May or Muirhead (or Winter when he came on) any kind of service. We persisted with Kelly despite him being the main culprit in giving the ball away. Prior didn’t have much to do but that was more down to poor finishing by Falkirk than anything else. So what did we learn? We learned that it doesn’t matter which players he picks, he is persisting with the same dull as ditchwater tactics & still provide no out ball at corners against us, so no sooner do we clear it than we give it away. All in all a good point at the best side I’ve seen this season in terms of playing football. If they had a finisher, they would have won; but they didn’t have one tonight so we escaped with a draw.

Well didn't manage to get to the game, was stuck in traffic waiting to get into the carpark, then it was full by the time we got there and too little time to get turned round and find another place to park, and make the game, Would've prob missed the first 25 mins.

Looks like i didn't miss much though, but a good point away from home against the current best team. Surprised we started Montano and Sole, looks like Sole didn't have his best game and was subbed at HT, hopefully we do it again against teams not as good as Falkirk. Would've liked us to have stuck on Lawal when Brandon went off injured, but guess Martindale was looking for the draw by then and not wanting to risk losing the game for a more attacking player coming on.

Sole was no worse than anyone else in the first half and hardly got a pass sent his way.
He had one excellent low cross that was crying out for someone to connect with but nobody was far enough forward (nose bleed territory if you get into the opposition box) - game was crying out for someone to just get on the ball and dictate the play. By contrast Falkirk move it quickly and players are in motion making themselves available to get the ball forward. If they had a regular finisher they would have won comfortably.

We were also held up and missed the first 15 mins. There is overflow parking at Forth Valley college which is about a 10 minute walk back to the stadium but they didn’t have any signage and at the guys at the home parking end kept sending away fans to the away parking but didn’t mention the overflow option. Poorly organised because they should have comms between the parking stewards.

I work regularly in Falkirk and the traffic at that roundabout is notoriously busy at the best of times,especially on a match day or night.As has been said not a match that will live long in the memory,and he did start the team weve been crying out for.Point was a fair one.Im still waiting on us to raise our game to a level where we can genuinely challenge for the title,honestly haven't seen that as yet.Still a point away to the probable title favourites not a disaster.Roll on Saturday..

I don't think Falkirk are prolific scorers, even with their best striker fit. For all the chances they create they miss a hell of a lot of them, i noticed that in the televised game against QP too. And i've read the same comments from their fans in every match thread, only they seem to think they're better than they are in front of goal, but just unlucky. They're very good at creating chances for sure, and move the ball around well, pressing good too, really need a goal scoring striker to bury their numerous chances though.

If we can keep improving and have the confidence to go at teams we'll be up there challenging them, our away form is not great though, picking up too many draws.

Troy wrote:I work regularly in Falkirk and the traffic at that roundabout is notoriously busy at the best of times,especially on a match day or night.As has been said not a match that will live long in the memory,and he did start the team weve been crying out for.Point was a fair one.Im still waiting on us to raise our game to a level where we can genuinely challenge for the title,honestly haven't seen that as yet.Still a point away to the probable title favourites not a disaster.Roll on Saturday..

I've been to numerous games at Falkirk, night games too, and never had any problem parking in the stadium carpark before, they're flying high just now though and have over 5,000 fans attending their games, still a clusterfuck for getting into their carpark last night though, no organisation, and became even worse when cars were going into the entrance and doing u turns to get back out, we just headed back home as we hadn't bought a ticket and were paying at the gate, wasn't worth the hassle getting turned back and being still stuck in a jam the other way, then having to find an alternative parking spot.

Been saying for years,draws will keep you in the division, any division most times.But certainly not challenging at the top end of any table.We all know where the problem lies predominantly with us.Top end of the pitch which once again Davie eluded to last night post match.Would love Yengi to come back with some sort of semblance of a player with renewd confidence in his own ability.And a wee purple patch from May wouldn't go amiss.Havent seen either so far,albeit plenty time for a resurgence from both.Goals lads Goals.!!!.‍�.

I'd just like us to stick with the Muirhead-May-Sole front three combo, and give them a run of games. Our defence is settled with having pretty much the same backline in every game, bar Montano now coming in at LB, but up front we've had Muirhead and Shinnie doing the hokey cokey*, one in the other out, shake it all about, and Sole getting 5 mins here and there, and May playing with Yengi before he was injured. So we've had Yengi/May/Muirhead/Shinnie/Sole/Winter/Smith all swapping about with one another.

Just get a settled front 3, we're 8 games into the season now, it's past time we had an idea of our best starting XI, and playing them.

*Muirhead's scored about 32 goals the last 2 seasons and already scored a few for us this season, so we know he's a prolific goal scorer at this level, we need to be giving him a run of games and stop swapping him around with Shinnie every other game.

Wee Davie’s post match video bemoans the front 5 for our lack of threat but they aren’t getting any service because of the way we are playing. By the time we get into attacking positions the opposing defence are set and we have nowhere to go, or the front men are isolated and don’t get support.

We won a turnover last night and Montano had open pitch in front of him & should have been making a beeline for the byeline to fire in a cross but he didn’t come forward quickly enough, Muirhead then ran ahead of him closing off the space, they tried to work the ball but Montano stumbled and lost possession. If Montano had made for the byeline to cross, Muirhead could have gone into the mixer to try and get to the cross. On another occasion Kelly went on a run through the middle beating 3 men and Muirhead went wide right into space but instead of passing Kelly tried to keep dribbling and lost the ball.

It’s all too slow and pedestrian. So blaming the forwards is smoke & mirrors to disguise the fact that the tactics are conservative at best.

I don’t think our front 3 are pressing the opposition enough as we let teams play out to easily. I think Kelly has been played at 6 to play the ball out more and stop the long ball up the park. I disagree with a quote saying he was giving the main culprit for giving the ball away.Sio I checked sofa score and his passing accurately was 83 % and was the highest scoring player with 8 got to wonder what people see at games

There are lies, damned lies and statistics. Most of his successful passes are short to the back four and his fellow midfielders. Stats are relatively meaningless & most of them are for the purpose of keeping statisticians in a job.

The single best midfield performance this season was 60 minutes or so of Olly Green dictating the match against Dunfermline and we have barely seen him since.

Kelly should be dominating games at this level, getting shots away regularly and making incisive passes for assists, but the midfield is too detached from the forwards. May is frequently pointing to where he wants the ball and never gets it and just as frequently calling his team mates to back him up by pointing to a player he wants someone to close down while he is pressing the ball carrier but hardly anyone responds.

We are pretty solid at the back but that is down to how tight the midfield is with the defence, confident keeping and poor finishing by the opposition. The transitions from defence into attack are too slow, allowing the opposition to get back and leaving May ploughing a lone furrow up front most of the time.

We were crying out for Muirhead and Sole to be on from the start expecting more cohesive midfield/forward transitions but we played the same style as we played without them in the side so we created next to nothing. Wee Davie blames the forwards but they aren’t getting any service because it’s all too slow.

The upside is we are getting positive results but we are as entertaining as watching paint dry and lack of scoring will end up biting us because we can’t/won’t keep clean sheets every week.