Pre-Season Friendlies

orco wrote:
Dunfermline will likely give us a harder game. I hear it is being played at Broxburn though.

Still says the Energy Assets arena on the official site.

Hopefully it is; would give people the chance to buy the new top as well.

its confirmed to be at broxburn now

https://www.facebook.com/events/1018350628182626/

I might go along now considering it's not at home.

Livi won a closed door game yesterday against Stirling at Forthbank 2-0. No idea who scored or details about the players, just read this on the Stirling website.

Livi win friendly

Posted on July 7th, 2015


We went down 2-0 to a strong Livingston side in a closed-door friendly on the Forthbank Astro on Tuesday evening.

Mark Burchill’s men scored early on with the aid of a deflection and doubled their lead midway through the second half.

Lee Hamilton, Ross McGeachie and Kevin McKinlay missed out due to minor injuries while Ross Forsyth, Mark Staunton and Sandy Cunningham were the only players to feature for the full 90 minutes.

Binos boss Stuart McLaren took the opportunity to look at a couple of trialists and we created some good chances and generally held our own for most of the game.

A bit more info up on our OS now, still pretty vague over who played but it gives the goal scorers. From the info it gives it'll prob be the same line up as the Stenny game.

The Lions travelled to Forthbank Astro last night for a closed door friendly with Stirling Albion.

A real mix of first team players, youth squad and trialists saw Livi run out 2-0 winners on the night, with goals from Danny Mullen and Myles Hippolyte securing the win.

“Everyone played 45 minutes again” said manager Mark Burchill who was pleased with his embryonic squad’s performance.

“It was a very good run out for the guys, and a valuable experience in getting more match minutes and fitness in their legs.”

Good to see Mullen and Hippo getting in on the goals.

Liviforever wrote:

Good to see Mullen and Hippo getting in on the goals.

Equally good to see us not shipping any goals with several makeshift defences over the past two games. I appreciate its not top-notch opposition but they'd undoubtedly be up for it so its good to see us keep it tight.

Durnford wrote:

Liviforever wrote:

Good to see Mullen and Hippo getting in on the goals.

Equally good to see us not shipping any goals with several makeshift defences over the past two games. I appreciate its not top-notch opposition but they'd undoubtedly be up for it so its good to see us keep it tight.

Indeed, that has been our weakness for a number of seasons, even going back to when Griffiths was here, we scored plenty of goals but conceded just as many. A tight defence would make such a huge difference to our final league placing, esp with strikers that will score goals too.

It's been a problem for longer than that.

Aye it was a problem the season we were relegated and the one before that when we managed to send Dundee down. Was pretty solid with Marv & Rubio as our 2 CB's.

I get a chill running down my spine when I think of Greg Strong in our defence *shudder*.

Liviforever wrote:Aye it was a problem the season we were relegated and the one before that when we managed to send Dundee down. Was pretty solid with Marv & Rubio as our 2 CB's.

I get a chill running down my spine when I think of Greg Strong in our defence *shudder*.

Ah but who can forget Gus Boharken (sp) - not the greatest defender by superb at breaking jaws

Yeah the infamous Larsson needing his jaw wired up.

Marv stuck the heid on Stiliyan Petrov too and did him an injury, needed stiches inside his mouth iirc. Petrov that is, not heid like a demolition ball Marv.

Rubio also got Hartson a dull one, elbows had to go off and get stitches, then came back on and elbowed Rubio in the face.

Must've been something we didn't like about Celtic players.
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On the Pars website that the game at Broxburn is a fiver entry.

Liviforever wrote:Yeah the infamous Larsson needing his jaw wired up.

Marv stuck the heid on Stiliyan Petrov too and did him an injury, needed stiches inside his mouth iirc. Petrov that is, not heid like a demolition ball Marv.

Rubio also got Hartson a dull one, elbows had to go off and get stitches, then came back on and elbowed Rubio in the face.

Must've been something we didn't like about Celtic players.
===========================================================

On the Pars website that the game at Broxburn is a fiver entry.

What about the "tackle" Gary Bollan did on Jackie McNamara in our first game against Celtic which earned him a red card?

Liviforever wrote:

On the Pars website that the game at Broxburn is a fiver entry.

On our's too:

http://livingstonfc.co.uk/pars-friendly-venue-switch/

Durnford wrote:

Liviforever wrote:

On the Pars website that the game at Broxburn is a fiver entry.

On our's too:

http://livingstonfc.co.uk/pars-friendly-venue-switch/

Good stuff, think i'll head along to it, reminds me of the Creamery park friendlies when our ground was out of use post Flynn.

Liviforever wrote:

Durnford wrote:

Liviforever wrote:

On the Pars website that the game at Broxburn is a fiver entry.

On our's too:

http://livingstonfc.co.uk/pars-friendly-venue-switch/

Good stuff, think i'll head along to it, reminds me of the Creamery park friendlies when our ground was out of use post Flynn.

Hopefully they have some cover as the forecast has it pi55ing down all day....

Durnford wrote:

Liviforever wrote:Yeah the infamous Larsson needing his jaw wired up.

Marv stuck the heid on Stiliyan Petrov too and did him an injury, needed stiches inside his mouth iirc. Petrov that is, not heid like a demolition ball Marv.

Rubio also got Hartson a dull one, elbows had to go off and get stitches, then came back on and elbowed Rubio in the face.

Must've been something we didn't like about Celtic players.
===========================================================

On the Pars website that the game at Broxburn is a fiver entry.

What about the "tackle" Gary Bollan did on Jackie McNamara in our first game against Celtic which earned him a red card?

Was that the one that got them a penalty but Broto saved it to earn us a well deserved 0-0 draw? I remember Bollan being sent off and them getting a late penalty but can't remember his tackie on McNamara.

Livi 0-0 Pars

Nae goals but suppose another clean sheet is something. Only a pish pre season game anyway, more about getting a run out etc etc.  


Livingston FC  @LiviFCOfficial  

Starting XI - DJ, Millen, Trialist, Sives, Longridge, Hippolyte, Pittman, Gibbons, Mullen, White & Buchanan (c)

2nd half subs made during the game.

Georgiev replaces Hippolyte.
Glen replaces White
Sheerin & Currie replace Millen & Buchanan.
Mullen is replaced by a Trialist

Dunfermline stating that we had Jackson Longridge playing and also a boy called Bo Longridge who came on as a sub. Our OS also states a Longridge coming on in the second half and that Jackson Longridge started. Any ideas?

No idea who either of these guys are so couldn't tell you.

Jackson is who we signed and is on the starting line up but no idea who the other Longridge is and didn't see him on our twitter feed.

Edit* I see the OS has the trialist that came on for Mullen as Longridge which is strange, wonder if we've signed him as trialists don't get named on team sheets.

First look at the new squad yesterday at Broxburn.

Positives from the game imo were.

DJ was solid looked really good with some terrific saves
The centre back on trial was very good and I'm sure will form a good partnership with Gordon or Sives if he is signed.
Buchanan and White were easily our best performers on the day and looked very comfortable playing together in their first match as a front two.
That's the positives out of the way.

We looked very weak on both fullback areas. Hopefully they improve with game time.
The centre midfield is probably the most important area of the park and Gibbons and Pittman were not in the game at all. I think we need an experienced centre mid and would like to see Cole get a chance there too. How we missed Keaghan yesterday as it was glaringly obvious. Centre mid definitely needs strengthening. If we could get a player  with experience like  Buchanan who could play in midfield we just may have the makings of a decent team.
Mullen out wide was not a great success , if he is playing wide he needs to think more about lifting his head and creating chances than trying to go alone all the time, Hippo reverted to his poor starting performance of old however he has the talent to be good so I'm not overly concerned about him being ok.

However it's pre season and the players are just getting back into their stride so things will improve.

Major positive is that we haven't conceded a goal in three games now.

I think Dunfermline are slightly ahead of us in pre season, team wise they seem more settled and the managers post match comments suggest that too. They didn't make as many changes so look to be at the stage where they're getting a starting 11 for the new season, rather than giving lots of players game time. We'll prob be at that stage in our next couple of games when we play Sociedad and Motherwell.

If we sign the trialist CB that would be great, would much prefer Cole playing in midfield too Smithy, he's comfortable on the ball and would give us a midfield playmaker filling the O'Brien role from last season.

Not seen us playing but Neill seems to be getting decent reviews from our fans that have watched him, if he signs I'd imagine him and Gordon would probably our starting CBs with Cole playing CM with Gibbons.

Sounds like we've got a half decent team with still a few more expected to come in, hopefully won't need to wait until the last day to avoid relegation.

Liviforever wrote:Jackson is who we signed and is on the starting line up but no idea who the other Longridge is and didn't see him on our twitter feed.

Edit* I see the OS has the trialist that came on for Mullen as Longridge which is strange, wonder if we've signed him as trialists don't get named on team sheets.

Wouldn't Longridge be the same person - we brought on the same trialist twice in the game against Stenny the other week; he did the full first half and then was brought back in in for about 30 minutes in the second half as a replacement for Cole.

Also I wouldn't read too much into our performance against Dunfermline; many of our players would have been only too aware of the game on Monday and wouldn't have wanted to run the risk of missing out on that.

Dunfermline has reportedly spent a fair bit of money building up their team; that being said if this had been a competitive game their number 5 wouldn't have lasted 20 minutes on the field with all the holding white and others back; shirt pulling and arm around the neck in the penalty area.