Pre-Season Friendlies

Incidentally though Millen started well but then seemed to get really bothered by the drunken Pars fans ripping the sh1t out of him; seemed to affect his concentration and confidence.

Durnford wrote:

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.

The twitter and OS match report didn't have him being subbed so don't think so, it also lists Mullen being replaced by a trialist on twitter then the OS report had him named as Longridge. Longridge wasn't subbed at all and a Longridge came on for Mullen at 80 mins.  Longridge are you Jacobs in disguise. I'm Spartacus, I'm Spartacus..........



Also see the trialist that played as a CB with Sives isn't down as a trialist on the match report now, he's named as Neill. Have we signed him too or are trialists being named now?

Liviforever wrote:The twitter and OS match report didn't have him being subbed so don't think so, it also lists Mullen being replaced by a trialist on twitter then the OS report had him named as Longridge. Longridge wasn't subbed at all and a Longridge came on for Mullen at 80 mins.  Longridge are you Jacobs in disguise. I'm Spartacus, I'm Spartacus..........

Also see the trialist that played as a CB with Sives isn't down as a trialist on the match report now, he's named as Neill. Have we signed him too or are trialists being named now?

As I recall the guy who came on at the 80th minute was a very young looking mousy fair headed lad so was totally different to Longridge - possibly another of our 15 year old's like Knox last week?

The trialist was Morgyn Neill from Motherwell.

http://www.motherwellfc.co.uk/players/under-20s/morgyn-neill/

Gonna call it early, but I reckon this season will be fairly brutal. Buchanan and Gordon sound like OK signings but I don't hold much hope for the rest. Too young, inexperienced and unproven. Even in pre-season 15 year-olds shouldn't be getting anywhere near the team.

I think it could be tougher than originally thought, not because we've used a 15 year old or two (Knox actually looked really good last week) but because some teams that I thought would be relatively easy meat have strengthened considerably (Dumbarton; Morton etc.)

I still think Millen at right back is a far better option than Foredyce. Was worried about how quickly he allowed himself to be affected by the Pars bampots heckling - he needs to get used to that.

Will Gibbon be a good enough replacement for Keaghan Jacobs? Sherrin looks to have the real desire to make it so, even though he is currently overweight, I think he'll be a real battler.

I think tonight will be a real telling point for many of our players; undoubtedly many took it easy on Saturday but wont tonight.

Georgiev is 24 years old so not that young although the main difference between him and McKenna seems to be he's not so fixated by heading for the corner flag.

Buchanan looks to really have it; once he and White create a proper partnership it could be really effective.

Seen Longridge twice now; he's okay but got a long way to go before he can fill Talbot's shoes; the Talbot of old I mean before he got injured.

How the team gels together over the next few weeks will be critical - unfortunately I still feel we need a strong club captain; I'm not sure who that's going to be however.

Lexi Collector wrote:Gonna call it early, but I reckon this season will be fairly brutal. Buchanan and Gordon sound like OK signings but I don't hold much hope for the rest. Too young, inexperienced and unproven. Even in pre-season 15 year-olds shouldn't be getting anywhere near the team.

I'm going to take the opposite, more optimistic, approach. I think this season will be decent, I think livi will be not be in a relagation battle this year.

Well, we haven't conceded yet & Real haven't scored yet...both will probably change tonight.

Durnford, which McKenna were you watching? I can count on one finger the number of times I saw him go past the 18 yard line never mind be fixated on getting to the corner flag; if only he HAD been going for the corner flag we might have got some crosses in from deep for a change!

Also, I was under the impression (I could be wrong) that Gibbons is a holding midfielder, if so then he cannot be compared with or considered a replacement for Keaghan Jacobs.

Lexi, if you look at the seasons expectations I think you'll find I called it earlier than you!

Contemporary wrote:

Lexi Collector wrote:Gonna call it early, but I reckon this season will be fairly brutal. Buchanan and Gordon sound like OK signings but I don't hold much hope for the rest. Too young, inexperienced and unproven. Even in pre-season 15 year-olds shouldn't be getting anywhere near the team.

I'm going to take the opposite, more optimistic, approach. I think this season will be decent, I think livi will be not be in a relaxation battle this year.

That would be an oxymoron would it not?

We looked pretty decent tonight, a few impressed me, Hippo, Pittman, Longridge, Buchanan, Gorgiev, Mullen and DJ.  Gibbons and the trialist from Motherwell Neilly looked ok too. Reckon my pre season prediction will stand up and we'll be 5th or 6th easy.

Pity the trialist that had to go off injured looked like a hammy, he did no bad and may be knackered if it is as serious as it looked. Not sure why we're still looking at strikers though, surely we have enough signed.

thought the number 21 trialist (moses) looked more like an attacking midfielder playing behind the striker...quick but fairly innefective. I was impressed with quite a few players tonight Hippo, White, Buchanan, Mullen and Longridge. I was really impressed with Sives who ive never rated but seemed composed and pretty solid at the back. Some good signs tonight just need the guys to gel that little bit more and we could have a cracking wee season.

I posted on the transfer thread that I thought that everyone who got some game time tonight showed they have something to offer; I think Real were surprised by what some of them were capable of. There was some good interplay & good tackling & tracking going on with guys showing a willingness to work both ways. There were some wayward passes but there was also some neat skill to win & keep possession & on the whole it was a decent run for them all & while I think Real played within their ability we coped pretty well with them.

I thought the Real #22 was a standout in the second half.

Some of them were dirty fecks too, lucky it was a friendly or some yellow cards would've been shown, esp for doing an Alloa and standing over the ball at every Livi free kick.

Good entertaining game though with nice passing from Livi as well.

Durnford wrote:Incidentally though Millen started well but then seemed to get really bothered by the drunken Pars fans ripping the sh1t out of him; seemed to affect his concentration and confidence.

What a bunch of mutants hounding a 20 year old.

Highlight of the game was Jackson Longridge putting Sergio Canales on his arse. Absolutely stripped him.

EdinburghLivi wrote:

Durnford wrote:Incidentally though Millen started well but then seemed to get really bothered by the drunken Pars fans ripping the sh1t out of him; seemed to affect his concentration and confidence.

What a bunch of mutants hounding a 20 year old.

They're fifers

'Nuff said.

Everyone got pass marks tonight in my books. DJ looked particularly solid and has done really for all the friendlies.

I was actually interested in who the number 37 (I think) was - the Simon Mensing lookalike but with none of the c0ck ups - he certainly didn't take any prisoners - mind you neither did Gibbon for that matter; another excellent prospect..

Seen the attendance was announced as 860 for the Sociedad game. I wish the club would fucking cut this nonsense out, don't care if it saves us £4.50 in tax or whatever, it just paints us out as a complete pub team and we're getting slaughtered for it. I queued up for about 10 minutes, got in just before kick off, couldn't sit in my usual seat because it was taken. Had to sit close to the front of the pitch in section C fucking 2 because of a lack of space (I go to most games with a mate these days, there were 7 of us there last night). People were coming in 10/15 mins after kick-off and seats which aren't taken for league games where the att is announced as 1400 were taken. Crowd was easily 2,000. Not the first time the club have undervalued our crowds.

Yeah thought that too Lexi when the att was announced, looked a lot more than that. I couldn't get 7 seats together in the hospitality when I went to sit so went into the stand and was struggling to get seated there too. My usual seat was occupied and several rows further back from that before I found a row to sit in.
There are usually plenty seats in the row I sit in and the 2 rows in front of there too.

Not sure - there seemed to be quite a number of Real players etc. sitting in the stand and, as far as I am aware, hospitality isn't counted as coming through the gate. Remembering how crowded its been when its been announced that the gate was only 1200 and the east stand was open for Away supporter.

In addition it was raining in the early part so very few people want to sit in the lower seats.

Even allowing for all that it did seem strangely low figure; I would have guessed it was closer to 1000 personally.

Incidentally why was there such a queue at the south end of the west stand? And why were people only using one of the turnstiles?

On the North side people were using both sides and although there was a bit of a queue it was moving. The south side one extended beyond the club shop when I walked past it.

I thought there was a bigger crowd too.

On reflection the game v Real was enjoyable.



First half it appeared that the manager put a team out to play silky passing football, it worked to an extent , but we never had any threat at all. LB was vastltly improved from Saturdays game and as I thought he would improve with game time. RB still a bit to go. Centre backs were ok and feel that Neil could be a real find. Sives needs to be more focused as he seems to think he is a forward at times and the team can lose its shape , he may be more suited to RB as he likes to go forward.

I thought the centre midfield two were vastly improved from the Saturday game however they may be just a little lightweight for the bustle of Scottish football playing together.

Wide players were awful once again which is a shame because we could have a very good chance with the strikers we have on our books. There was no service again from centre mid or wide in the first half and I felt sorry for Mullen and Buchanan. One thing I noticed was that Myles was coming over to the left side and bumping into the Bulgarian player who has not shown any thing of note so far. If we play with two up front which I prefer then the guys need service. Hippo is far better on the left than the right.

Uptop we had Mullen and Buchanan and although I felt sorry for them due to lack of service it just didn't work as a pairing, Danny showed up better than Buchanan on the night. I would like to see Buchanan and White a play again as they seemed to be starting to click on Saturday.

Second half it appeared by the changes that we were going more physical in our approach to the game, it certainly worked because we were more in their half of the park and had them on the back foot with a few attempts at goal.

The number 37 was a great addition to the midfield , with some game time he could be up to speed and be the experienced player I feel we need in the middle, hope we sign him as that would give us four players vying for the two centre mid spots.

Out wide we went with Glen and the fast guy , who will be good if he can start to pass lol. White looked composed again but had to come back deep to get into the game.

We have the makings of a decent squad 3 really good strikers in the BMW machine but for goodness sake lets get the midfielders and wide guys creating chances for the three of them who scored 44 goals between them last season to beat last years tally.

I liked some of the moves Mullen made, had to do a double take when he got a ball with his back to a Sociedad player and flicked it past him on the turn to one of our players, I was like wow Mullen has awareness of players after all!!  If that's a sign of him improving from last season then it is looking good.

Buchanan can feed off scraps and buzzed about jumping on loose balls, and I don't think he was offside when he ran onto a ball from the other side of the pitch and was in behind their defence

White looked good when he got the ball to his feet, so we really need to do that rather than giving it to him chest height, or at his head in midfield. And with Mullen/Buchanan playing off him I'd expect good things from the BMW machine.

We got our usual seats at the back of C2 and had many of the usual faces in front of us. There was a row of young lads there that didn't look that familiar and they seemed more interested in discussing Facebook, farting, girls and mocking any songs the "choir" tried to sing. Most of them looked about 12, one of them looked a bit older but while the rest looked up to him, he wasn't any more mature in behaviour. Anyway, I digress, basically while it looked relatively busy there was still plenty of space.

I disagree with Smithy on the wide men, I thought they tried and did okay, they perhaps failed to produce a final ball but they were up against a team that would probably challenge for the title in our premier league, if not win it and while they were probably not playing at 100% they were still sufficiently better than us.

Bertie Bassett wrote:There was a row of young lads there that didn't look that familiar and they seemed more interested in discussing Facebook, farting, girls and mocking any songs the "choir" tried to sing.

Sounds like a slightly more civil version of what I chat about at the games, tbh.

the number 37 was Hugo Faria...he's a Portuguese defensive mid who played with Burchell at Enosis Neon in Cyprus