Raith v Livi

Hopefully Hippo will be back for this game, if not and Faria is signed up this week I'd play him and Gibbons in CM to break up play with Pittman and Mullen as attacking midfielders.

Morgan and Millen are suspended I think it'll be either a back 3 of Gallagher, Neill and Sives with Longridge on the wing or a 4-4-2 with Gallagher RB same as he was in the 2nd half against Clyde.

White and Buchanan up front again too would be my guess.

I'll go for a conservative 2-0 Livi win, FG 13 mins.

This Morgan fella...new signing is he?

With Gordon and Millen suspended and some injuries to deal with, I suspect a more defensive approach from Burchy, flat back 4, 5 in Midfield with a lone striker.

After both sides winning away from home last season in these matches I'm going for a draw, 1-1 with the first goal on 32 mins

Yeah both Morg(y)an Neill and Ben Gordon are new signings Bertie, canny even get away with that cause it's Morgyn and no Morgan.

I cannot see us doing well this season and think this Saturday will be our first loss of the campaign. I dont think we are a million miles away from teams like Rangers, Hibs etc - but we are certainly not looking good going up front.

Bit early to be writing off 3 players that scored 35 league goals between them last season. Will be the same again this season for them or maybe even slightly more from White & Mullen, also reckon Hippo will score around 8 this season and hopefully the likes of Pittman, Gallagher and Sives with chip in with some too.

Achilles wrote:I cannot see us doing well this season and think this Saturday will be our first loss of the campaign. I dont think we are a million miles away from teams like Rangers, Hibs etc - but we are certainly not looking good going up front.

haha is negativity your achilles heel?

2-0 Livi. Shags with both goals.

I'd very much like it to be 2-0 with Shags getting both. Bad feeling about this game though, we never win on the opening day and Raif usually start really well before collapsing on their arse around mid-September. They've got a new manager too and when we played them last season we lost both home games, with both away games coming off the back of either a points deduction or a good run of form which was vital to keep us up.

I'd take a draw but I reckon this lot will probably nick it by a goal. 2-1 them, fg around 25 mins.

They have injury issues and have also a changed team . Im going a 2-0 win Sives and Mullen.

Edward snowdon wrote:They have injury issues and have also a changed team . Im going a 2-0 win Sives and Mullen.

Yep Vaughan is injured and they're all in a panic about it.

9 goals in last two visits to Starks Park, why all the doom and gloom about this fixture.

3 - 0 Livi first goal 29 mins

Smithy wrote:9 goals in last two visits to Starks Park, why all the doom and gloom about this fixture.

3 - 0 Livi first goal 29 mins

Cause all good things come to an end

We were poor against Clyde, struggled to score. I still fancy us to beat Raif though.

3-1 Livi first goal 28 mins

Clyde only had one serious shot at our goal the whole 120 mins, that says it all really, Raith wont be so defensively set out against us, I hope!!!

Smithy wrote:

Achilles wrote:I cannot see us doing well this season and think this Saturday will be our first loss of the campaign. I dont think we are a million miles away from teams like Rangers, Hibs etc - but we are certainly not looking good going up front.

haha is negativity your achilles heel?

I think im just setting myself up for a not so steep drop. Theres a lot of positive energy round these forums, but after watching the shambles against Clyde, I am just not conviced it merits it. However, I'll be the first to come on and hold my hands up and say " I was wrong" on Saturday at 5pm if we rattle this mob again.

Yo EL, I thought you put Raif into the autocorrect? Why's it still coming up with 'Raith'? Ain't heard of em, tbh.

From what I've read Raith are suffering injuries to key players in defence and up font, Vaughan is a huge miss for them. All looking good for us playing them on Saturday but we all know it counts for nothing unless we're up for it and put in a good performance ourselves. Still, I'm pretty confident going into this game, got a good feeling about us taking all 3 points and breaking our bad run going back about 6 seasons the last time we won an opener in the league.

Mon the Amber Machine.

Raith match preview is up: http://www.raithrovers.net/20705/match-preview-livingston-home-4.htm

Head-to-Head League Record at Stark’s Park:

raif Wins: 3 | Livingston Wins: 8 | Draws: 1

raif Goals: 11 | Livingston Goals: 25

Current Form:

raif: W-W | Livingston W-W

Top Goalscorers:

raif: Lewis Vaughan 2 | Kyle Benedictus 1 | Rory McKeown 1

Livingston: Jordan White 1 | Danny Mullen 1 | Miles Hippolyte 1

Match Odds:

raif: 6/5 | Livingston: 9/4 | Draw: 5/2


Good news for us then that Vaugh their main goal threat is out for this game. Odds are a bit low for Raith though, would think they'd be higher considering their poor record against us at home.

I see EL has been messing with the Raith filter, when I copied and pasted it has all come up raif.

It's just "RaithRovers" (with a space) that is down on the autocorrect as Raif.

Feeling confident after chatting with Lexi but as he mentioned on this earlier, Raif usually start the season well and I can't remember the last time we won the first game during our seasons in the First Division/Championship.

2-2. FG 13 mins.

2-3 #AM. FG 25 mins.

Really hope we do these mugs again.

Raif have a few injuries but we've got a couple out too so not sure how this will go. We do well at Starks though so I'll go for a 2-0 away win, FG 35 mins.

2-0 #AM, FG 67 minutes.

So a bit of a pasting today then eh? So much for having a strong defence and Roath Ravers having injury problems, a weakened squad and no goal threat. Ah well, back to reality I suppose.

Sives was poor but Cole was worse and White added pretty much diddly squat.

First goal was a cock up against the run of play; second was a penalty that no-one other than the linesman seemed to understand; third was a counter attack when we'd been pressing for a goal.

Player for player we beat Raith in virtually every position on the pitch but too many unforced errors and missed passes and wastefulness in front of goal.

Don't want to single people out particularly but Sives and Cole should not be getting an automatic start; particularly bearing in mind who we have on the bench.