Livi v Raith

Can't remember the last time we didn't beat Raith, okay we haven't played them in the league for a good few years, but we've had numerous cup wins over them, and the away win this season. Hopefully that continues on Saturday.

Yengi being back fit gives us a different dimension up front, seemed to work really well against Ayr, with May and Muirhead alongside him, and Pitts getting up in attack too. We also have Sole and Lawal as good options playing wide in a front 3. By all accounts Danny Wilson had a good game when he came on, and Nottingham switch to RB, so we've options there too, actually liked Notts anytime i've seen him playing as a RWB, has a bit of pace about him to get down the wing, and good physicality to body defenders out his way in a tight area. So it's difficult guessing what starting XI we'll put out. May, Brandon, Pittman, Nottingham, McGowan, Prior and maybe Kelly, being our core group of players, everyone else has been rotated.

Would think Muirhead will be safe to start again after scoring, he pretty much takes a shot when he has sight of goal, which i like. And with Montano going off injured then Clarke will be in that core group too now. So 3 spots still up for grabs. Will we stick with Finlayson at RB, or move Nottingham there and bring in Wilson as CB, personally i'd stick with what has been a solid partnership of McGowan and Nottingham, in an if it aint broken don't fix it way of thinking.

Expecting another tough game against Raith, but with the options we've got from the bench giving us the edge, and a home win by 1 or 2 goals.

8 years since they beat us 1-0 at our place.

This game might be a bit more difficult than expected. They outplayed us at Starks Park earlier this season and also looked the better team in last season’s cup game at our place despite us coming out on top both times. At least Dylan Easton will be suspended after his sending off at the weekend and Lewis Vaughan is injured again so they’ll be missing arguably their best two players.

Agree on what you say, I want to see us impose ourselves on them from the kick off but I suspect we will be our usual slow tempo.

Last 2 games we've come out and scored 2 goals in the first half, playing at a higher tempo and having a go at them, be good if we continue doing that, and maybe even scoring a 3rd to make the game as good as done in the first 45 mins.

Totally agree, don’t know why we don’t try to overwhelm teams in the first half and utilise the strong bench when the starting attackers have burned themselves out. Wasting a half only gives us 45 minutes to win a game. Our home games have been particularly bad for that, the first halves have always been a hard watch.

The downside of that has been that we have conceded goals too and only won 1 of the 2 games in the 90 mins, the other going to pens. Thankfully the important game was won.

That said, most fans will take a goal fest over a goalless borefest, preferably with us doing most of the scoring.

Yeah the Caley game they shut up shop 2nd half and went ultra defensive looking to take it to pens, only coming out their half when they got the ball to hit us on the counter, i doubt any Championship teams will want to do that as early as HT when the game is level.

Against Ayr i think it was us being less cavalier being a goal up when we came out 2nd half, and did a reverse of what we usually do, and we did manage to see out the game. We also could've scored a 3rd when we were on top, or not conceded going in at HT, and it would've been a lot more comfortable 2nd half.

Staying on that trend, with as you mentioned it being more entertaining seeing us scoring goals, i think we could play like we did 1st half against Ayr and go 3 up, hopefully not conceding any, esp against teams further down the table.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could put games to bed by half time and give some squad players a run out in the second half. Right now it seems like every game (bar Hamilton) the result is in the balance right up to the final whistle. The other downside is that it can work against us too and the opponents can sneak a late goal against the run of play. Remember the cup game at home to Spartans where we dominated without creating much then got done by a sucker punch five minutes from time. Luckily that’s not happened in the league yet but it should’ve been a wake up call to play with more urgency from the start.

Seems to be the general consensus that we are going to win this.Yeh,we were fortunate the last time we played them.Having said that I feel weve improved so much since then,especially defencivly.We will eventually lose the unbeaten run,fortunately i don't see that happening tomorrow. Take the game to them from the off and I can see the points staying in West Lothian.Full throttle for 90 minutes and we can do this.Mon the Lions..

I'm emotionally drained after watching that today, god we don't half get put through the ringer this season.

But who doesn't love a last minute winner.

Let’s not kid ourselves, we were pretty inept for 75 minutes of the 90. Far too laboured in the build up, woeful passing & no threat up front. Danny Wilson defended well enough but his passing was frequently poor, he did try to find our wide players with diagonals but it was his short passing that was poor.
We started quite briskly & brightly but quickly descended into hopeful long balls. Rovers then took the initiative & played a much better style of football & ripped us to bits when they deservedly took the lead.

Second half wasn’t much better & when they went down to 10 men we still didn’t press home any advantage. Davie seems to think we used the ball well with the man advantage but we went nowhere with it. We brought Sole on but instead of playing it to him when he was in space we gave him the ball when he was facing our goal. Then we somehow smuggle the ball in at the back post to get level & finally started to play a bit but Rovers still looked threatening on the break & set pieces. Wilson then gets a harsh straight red - although I had a feeling it would be red at the time I didn’t think it was right that it should be. Good play brought us a corner in the dying minutes & big Notts bullets in the winner but they still “managed” to concede a corner & give Rovers a chance to equalise. Thankfully, Sole managed to smack it off a Rovers player so that it rolled out & that was that.

That is twice we have mugged them this season after they have been better than us. The positive is we are winning games without playing well, so hopefully we start to play well soon & wipe the floor with the opposition.

Aye first 5 mins we were getting down the left wing and showing some neat passing football, then it all went to shit. Rovers were leaving 4 players up pressing us bringing it out of defence, and we descended into booting it aimlessly up the pitch, which frequently got picked up by their players and came straight back down into our half with them attacking us.

We did get a grip of the game and turn it around going into HT though, looking like Rovers had burned themselves out after that 30 min spell of running all over us.

2nd half was better but not much in the way of a goal threat, till Sole came on and immediately got to the byeline to put some balls in. Still needed to get it to him quicker though, and play it in front of him to run onto.

Big Notts isn't working as a FB though, and Yengi needs an attacking FB getting up the wing to pass him the ball, he just isn't any use as a target man taking long balls, or getting the ball played with his back to goal.

Wilson's red is a blessing, because it means Martindale will have to go back to Notts at CB and Finlayson back in at FB, which was working fine for us. As soon as he starts messing about playing players out of position, so others can play, it goes awry. The falling out with Yengi also means Sole might get a start.

Talk about mixed emotions is an understatement.To go from depression to utter exhilaration in such a short time was to say in the least nerve shattering.TBH I thought Raith were the better team up until their man got sent off.But heartwarming the way we capatilised.You guys have covered the main points,so I won't go over them again.I spoke to Shinnie after the game and he said the Yengi situation had been resolved by both parties,citing emotions running high and Tete would be back in for training on Monday,though in Davies Post match interview he said it would be dealt with today‍�.He did admit that he got Notts position wrong,but did so to accommodate Wilson in their.He also said he won't appeal Wilsons red card,although he found it harsh.I was shaken coming out of the ground at FT.But I guess last minute winners do that to you?..🥶.

I actually thought it was Nottingham that fouled their player and he was already on a yellow for being booked with the ball at his feet while on the deck*, so would be off, the straight red was a joke though, as Notts was up with him and close enough for me to think it was him being booked, so Wilson wasn't last man.

*also think booking a player for doing that is pish, we've seen opposition players doing it and not being booked, or even a foul being given for not releasing the ball when on the ground. Notts stood on the ball and fell, had it between his legs and just got back up. I've even seen opposition players holding it there and getting a foul for our player kicking them to try and get the ball, no consistency or clear decisions from refs on what you can and can't do at times.

Look at the highlights…. The ref shows Wilson the red card and then flashes a yellow at Notts - so not sure how Notts stayed on to get the winner (I’d forgotten he was booked earlier and yes that was also a poor decision).

*Just looked at the match report on the OCS and at the Sky App “commentary” - according to both, McGowan got a yellow for a bad foul and Wilson got a straight red… neither mentions Notts being booked at any time in the match. Ref definitely shows a yellow to him after sending Wilson off in the video and I remember it at the time. Was trying to work out how he could book him for his part in the incident with Wilson getting a straight red. Had forgotten about the “obstruction” incident with Notts until LF mentioned it. Puzzled as to how two reports have failed to see either of them.

Aye it's all rather confusing with the bookings. Don't think Wilson's should've been a straight red, and makes it worse when he giving Notts a yellow for the exact same incident. The Raith player was sandwiched in between them, and Notts was slightly ahead of him, so it wasn't a last man foul by Wilson stopping a goal scoring opportunity, on the halfway line.

But that begs the question of did Notts get away with not being red carded for a second yellow? Or are we both going daft?

Auld Nick wrote:But that begs the question of did Notts get away with not being red carded for a second yellow? Or are we both going daft?

Someone's going daft, we saw 2 yellow cards being flashed at Nottingham and neither is on any match report, not on the Livi or BBC twitter/live feeds either. Maybe the food was spiked with hallucinogens.


On one hand Wilson's red forces Martindale back to using just 2 CB's and playing FB's in their natural position, which was working fine for us, but on the other, Wilson scored a goal and had another narrowly chopped off for offside, so we're missing a good goal threat from a CB. Something we've not had for a long time, i know Notts scored but it's his first since he came here, hopefully not his last, but Wilson scored in his first start.

Going to be tricky choosing our best 2 CB's now though, just hope Martindale doesn't play all 3 because he doesn't want to drop one. Wilson was also the player marking Hamilton when he scored, so defensively he's got a minus point for that, cancelled out by his goal.