Livi vs. Clyde - Petrofac Defence Round 1

I think we will win this one 4 nil with first goal in 5 mins

If Gallagher gets signed he may not start with him not having any pre season training under his belt, he's a couple of weeks behind everyone else in fitness.

Would still be a great signing as he wont take long to get up to speed, prob have a couple of closed door games between now and the start of the league to for him to play in. Hoping we hear some news soon.

Scrappy 2-1 win for the #AM. FG 19 mins.

LiviCub wrote:Scrappy 2-1 win for the #AM. FG 19 mins.

Copycat!

Bertie Bassett wrote:

LiviCub wrote:Scrappy 2-1 win for the #AM. FG 19 mins.

Copycat!

Looks like we're splitting the points

I'll go for 3-0 Livi, FG 14 mins.

Guys - you're forgetting - White only scores in threes.

3-0 Livi, FG 16 mins

Durnford wrote:Guys - you're forgetting - White only scores in threes.

That's why I went for 4 nil haha

2-1 Livi - first goal 27 mins.

The squad are still blending, we won't "hump" anyone yet.

4-1 Livi. White x 2, Buchanan + Spas...

Nice bit in the evening news...

http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/sport/football/livingston/livingston-in-no-mood-to-let-go-of-petrofac-cup-1-3839378

Moses out with Cole + Glen doubts.

Reckon we'll go with DJ, Millen, Sives, Gordon, Longridge, Gibbons, Pittman, Hippo, Mullen, Buchanan, White.

It's funny how winning this cup last season has made me really want us to get to the final and win it this season too when I used to not give a monkeys about it. Mon the AM.

3-0 Livi, FG 15 mins.

2-0 us, Mullen and Hippolyte with screamers apparently.

2-1 FT.

God Clyde are murder to watch, complete anti football with the ref allowing them to constantly foul our players with barges and pushed in the back, along with clinical fouls to stop us playing. Whenever we got any kind of flowing football going Clyde just fouled us.

We got off to a great start and looked like it was going to be easy street until we conceded that corner. Clyde aint going to trouble us in open play they are dire, but are well set up to defend in numbers and wont be drawn out to come into our half to get the ball.

They set out to stifle us in the final third and up to a  point it worked, esp after yhey got their goal from a corner. We caught them out early doors with long range shots but after that they closed us down to make sure we didn't get any shots from outside their box again. Boring as hell to watch but we won and are through to the next round.

For the next cup game against them we need to use width more and get in behind them, their CB's are big and slow, No6 the fat Simon Mensing in particular looks slow and clumsy, mopped up any balls hit into the box from the diagonal though so no point doing that next week. He just barges into White and nudges him off balance, or blocks his run so we need to use pace against him, beggar took a swipe at Hippo but was too slow to catch him.
Also need to inject some pace into our game and move it quicker when we actually catch them up in our half, I'm happy enough for us to knock it about and let them be happy to sit deep when we're a couple of goals up but when we have a chance to break and catch them on the hop we need to do so. Instead we just passed it about the backline and allowed them all to drop back into their own half and back into defensive formation.

All they've got is a lump forward in the hope to get a break, and the odd scramble from set pieces knocked into our box.

I liked the look of Gibbons, also Longridge is doing ok, Millen needs to try and hit the bye line for crosses though. Mullen and Hippo did a fair bit of running and are key to opening them up next week, need to get them working with the wingbacks more to get in behind them.

EdinburghLivi wrote:2-0 us, Mullen and Hippolyte with screamers apparently.

Yeah Mullen's in particular was hit from some distance and looked a cracker, Hippo had a few digs earlier so saw it coming, well hit goal too. Looking forward to seeing them both on LIVItv. Longridge had a dig too that looked no bad but was deflected out for a corner. I think our shoot on sight of goals early on worked a treat.

They'll be certain to have that sorted next week though as they obv got told at HT to crowd us out as soon as we got anywhere near shooting range.

Hippo had it on a plate for our third for a diving header but he tried to be fancy with a spectacular effort in a mid air bicycle kick type shot, keep it simple Miles as that would've killed them off going 3-0 up. Buchanan nearly scored just before he was subbed too, good move by Livi ending with Buchanan looking as if he'd scored but just didn't quite catch it right to get enough power to beat their keeper.

BTW how much does Hippo like scoring in the Petrofac cup, that's him off and running again in the first round.

Agree with LF's comments on the game first competitive game now under the belt hopefully we can only improve with more games, By the way who was the sub trialist wearing number 22 looked familiar!

Lee Miller was the trialist on the subs bench, apparently just a favour to make up the numbers for us and unlikely to be signing.

Read on Callum Carson's twitter that's Hippo's 43rd game for Livi and the first time he's played the full 90 minutes.

A decent referee next week might make a difference. That kind of thuggish football would not be allowed in the SPL by any referee. Looks like there are different standards elsewhere.

orco wrote:A decent referee next week might make a difference. That kind of thuggish football would not be allowed in the SPL by any referee. Looks like there are different standards elsewhere.

Only when we are the opposition - not that I'm exhibiting paranoia or anything!

Some of the barges knocking our players to the ground was so blatant it beggared belief the ref didn't book their players, or even give us a penalty as some were inside the box. That Clyde player that threw the ball at our player too must've been seen by the nearside lino but he turned a blind eye to it, the ref had his back to him so i'll let him off with that one. Christ our players have been booked for throwing the ball away let alone throwing it at an opposition players face.

Anyone with good knowledge of the offside rule explain this one please, our player moves for the ball along with their player, he realises he's offside so stops and lets him run back alone, the opposition player runs 5 or 6 yards back and heads the ball back up the pitch and our player goes for it, the lino sticks his flag up?

Couple of things confuse me there, a) our player pulled up so wasn't interfering with play, the lino didn't even flag for that either. b) Once the ball was knocked up towards our player he is 1)in a 2nd phase of play and 2) can't be offside as their player knocked the ball not one of ours.

I can only think the lino was making a ruling because our player originally moved with their player and even though he stopped he was still actively interfering with play, which was nonsense.

Oh and when waiting for a corner coming over it seems not challenging for the ball along with our player but waiting till our player jumps then just pushing him in the back so our player is pushed away from getting the ball is perfectly legal. Wonder what would happen if we did it though.

That's my rant/bitching over now.  

Clyde are tipped to win League 2 as well, can't see it myself unless League 2 is utter mince.

Apart from the first 20 mins, it was a fairly even contest and we closed it out like a pre-season game. I was really impressed with Gibbons as he was always looking for the ball and spreading the passes and it helped having a partner like Pittman who's near enough as good technically. Only criticism I would give was the amount of space our FBs had but never making the shouts to receive the ball but this should naturally improve as we're only one game in.

I think it'll be more difficult next week but I still expect us to come out on top.

Liviforever wrote:That Clyde player that threw the ball at our player too must've been seen by the nearside lino but he turned a blind eye to it, the ref had his back to him so i'll let him off with that one. Christ our players have been booked for throwing the ball away let alone throwing it at an opposition players face.

I have no idea what the rules state (if any) regarding this but it was ridiculous that the linesman never pointed this out to the ref.

LiviCub wrote:Apart from the first 20 mins, it was a fairly even contest and we closed it out like a pre-season game. I was really impressed with Gibbons as he was always looking for the ball and spreading the passes and it helped having a partner like Pittman who's near enough as good technically. Only criticism I would give was the amount of space our FBs had but never making the shouts to receive the ball but this should naturally improve as we're only one game in.

I think it'll be more difficult next week but I still expect us to come out on top.

Football is a funny old game, two people watch the same game and come to a very different conclusion.

I've said that Millen was maybe a weak link in the team but by God he made so many moves wide yesterday but the mid field two diidnt find him with the ball even when Millen himself and Burchy were telling them to get it wide.

Feel we need to sign the big Portuguese fella as this midfield pair is square ball back pass all the time.

However we blew them away in the first twenty minutes and if Myles had been more professional and headed the ball back across the goal for the two players waiting to have a shot at goal instead of a stupid scissor kick then it would have been game over, hopefully he learns from it and does not try it again.

2 cracking goals from Hippo and Mullen tho in what was a dire game.