Livi v ICT - League Cup 3rd Round

It's because a lot of punters like myself weren't willing to spend more on predictable rubbish football. I'm not even a ST holder, if this were a league game I still wouldn't have gone.

Excellent first half performance, we all called for White and Sheerin to be given the chance and they were both excellent. Pitman was in that same category too with probably tonight being his and Whites best performances in a Livi shirt which shows that both could play at a higher level as Inverness are clearly the best Scottish team we have played this season.

The formation was top class 442, everyone performed well and deserve the chance to start again against Alloa.Yes it was a bad mistake from big Neill and he would be the only change I would make as we have a very good player in Gordon who is more experienced, but overall the lad played well.

Unbelievable we really looked a very decent team in the first half and that was by far our best performance of the season, particularly when you consider the opposition.

Same formation same team with one possible change as we need to get some consistency for these next two crucial games in our season.

Sheerin still looks as if needs to lose some more weight and get fitter but that will come especially with more game time, however well done to the manager for going two up top with the SAS and the players for playing well and giving us hope for Saturday.

ICT have one win from eight and are a team who have lost all ( when Chritie goes ) their decent players so there was nothing to fear from them. Cup games only mean one thing progress or lose and no matter how well people think we played you can be assured that is the oppositions mentality also. Alloa this weekend is a big game which i feel we must get at least a draw from.

We must be the most generous team in Scotland. We keep gifting goals to the opposition.

Well that's Rangers, Hibs and Caley out of the road now. Three teams with stronger better players than we have. No excuses now though if we don't take something from our next two games against teams at our own level. Our record at Alloa isn't great but I live in hope and will have my fingers crossed that the mistakes stop.

I think we need to take all three points at Alloa, one game at a time mentality. We do this we are off the bottom of the league.
Burchill commented after last night's game saying it's unacceptable to keep saying we played well but lost which was strange timing as last night's game was probably the only time in the season where that comment was acceptable.
Don't win on Saturday against Alloa now that's unacceptable as it will be 2 points from 24 available which would be just ridiculous.

Taking White (our best player) off and leaving Sheerin (who was blowing out his arse after 60 mins) on for the full game presumably only for match fitness gives me great concerns about the management team. It felt to me as if they basically admitted defeat which at 2-0 with a decent period to go, it definitely wasn't. Furthermore, I actually saw Burchill ask Sheerin if he was okay just before the sub (he obviously said he was, despite the fact he wasn't). If he was really desperate to win the game, he wouldn't be listening to him and would have hauled him off for Buchanan earlier.

Things like this are why I'm really struggling to give a fuck anymore. Absolutely zero heart in the club at the moment.

Other than that 20/25 mins spell, we were outpassed. The final ball is letting us down again and there seems to be no communication throughout the defence. Only positive I can take is we looked more balanced with attack and defence and I think we should start with Shagz and Sheerin up front.

I'll give Burchill the chance to show himself as a manager for Alloa and Dumbarton. If he doesn't get 6 points and doesn't come out with public criticism, then my faith in him is all but gone. The guy needs to acknowledge at least something about the opinion of the majority.

EdinburghLivi wrote:Taking White (our best player) off and leaving Sheerin (who was blowing out his arse after 60 mins) on for the full game presumably only for match fitness gives me great concerns about the management team. It felt to me as if they basically admitted defeat which at 2-0 with a decent period to go, it definitely wasn't. Furthermore, I actually saw Burchill ask Sheerin if he was okay just before the sub (he obviously said he was, despite the fact he wasn't). If he was really desperate to win the game, he wouldn't be listening to him and would have hauled him off for Buchanan earlier.

Things like this are why I'm really struggling to give a fuck anymore. Absolutely zero heart in the club at the moment.

Looking good for getting Sheerin playing on Sat then, surely must have given him the full 90 mins to get his fitness up for the Alloa game. Still think Sheerin and White are the best front two pairing and even though they didn't manage to score against ICT I think they would against any of the teams outside Hibs and Sevco. Especially if they are given a run of games playing together and we get a settled starting 11, no more chopping and changing every game, we should know our best starting 11 by now and need to get some consistency with them playing together.

Oh and I think some time needs to be spent getting our defenders and keeper working in training to form an understanding so we cut out these stupid bloody mistakes that are gifting teams goals, hard enough to get points without giving the opposition a goal of a start every game. Could do with us working on defending set pieces too.

I'd like to see DJ get some decent coaching. He is a good shot stopper but his positioning at set pieces is poor. He also needs to command his area at corners instead of hiding behind opposition players. Andy McNeill used to do that too. Also he needs to shout to defenders and let them know what he is going to do.

Lexi Collector wrote:

Bertie Bassett wrote:It could be argued that we weren't good enough in attack either as we didn't score, however I tend to agree with you LF, we definitely were on top when they scored the 2nd which IMO DJ should have claimed as it crossed the goalmouth.

Only an excellent save prevented Glen from scoring with a header in the first half. And with Saints winning by a similar margin at Hunbrox it is certainly no disgrace to lose by 2 to a team from the division above.

I think Sheerin showed he is fit enough, but to my way of thinking he should have been the target man with Whiite doing the bulk of the running. Neill played well apart from the mis-header and being caught in possession on one or two occasions. Longridge is a handful going forward. Hippo and Pittman gave them problems and kept getting whacked for their trouble. Cole actually looked interested and put in a shift. Gallagher was ok. Millen always seems to lose possession after a decent bit of play. Front two worked hard. Glen improved as the game wore on.

I thought 2-0 was harsh at half time but was maybe about right over the 90.

Lexi away and listen to Chas & Dave, one of their songs is you to a T... "There ain't no pleasin' you"

Funnily enough my mate was playing loads of Chas n Dave in the car on the way home from golf today and this was one of the songs that came on. I didn't enjoy it.

I reckon I'd be a bit more pleased if we:
Had more than 1 point from 7 league games
Weren't bottom of the league
Hadn't lost our last 4 games, scoring only 2 consolations
Could manage more than 2 attempts on target
Had a manager who knew his best team
Showed a bit of fight for an entire game
Didn't have a twitter man clogging up my twitter feed up by posting and retweeting shite puns about shite Italian food.

We'll lose on Saturday.

I rest my case