Livi v ST Mirren

The Saints coming into this game off the back of an impressive cup win over the Pars, just what we needed.

Hopefully that has no bearing on their league performance (eg. our cup wins).

Pity Hippo will be suspended as he caused them problems in our last game and won a pen against them. Mullen also caused them problems in our 3-2 win but can't see him starting, perhaps he'll get a sub appearance though.

We'll have to be alert in the early stages so we don't get caught out the same way we did in our prev 2 games against them, they've been pretty dangerous hitting us on the break early on.

Desperately need a win to get us moving up the table, no frigging mistakes at the back and no excuses of having a good performance and failing to get the 3 points.

2-1 Livi, FG 32 mins (please).

2-0 St Mirren, FG 15 mins

Our home form has become an albatross round our necks, 4 games 4 defeats, I see no reason to expect that to change; I have come to the conclusion our stadium & pitch have become more of a hindrance than a help.

Liv 0 Saints 3 fg 5 mins

If we get the first goal I think we'll win comfortably, same as we did against Alloa.

Bertie Bassett wrote:Our home form has become an albatross round our necks, 4 games 4 defeats, I see no reason to expect that to change; I have come to the conclusion our stadium & pitch have become more of a hindrance than a help.

Liv 0 Saints 3 fg 5 mins

A very strange analogy

I thought you'd recognise a literary reference

Not been this less arsed about a Livingston game in a very long time. Saints had a cracking win over Dunfermline last week, let's see if they can get momentum against us.

Livi 0 Saints 2, FG 19 mins.

Crowd: 856.

Sometimes when your expectations are low you get a good result Afro, here's hoping anyway.

2-0 St Mirren

I think i'm the only one with some hope of us winning, where's Smithy when you need him!

Sorry LF can't see us winning tomorrow.

New manager is what's needed
4 points out of 30 after tomorrow's game.
Not anywhere good enough.
Hope I'm wrong , but can't see any other way out of this mess.

3-1 St Mirren FG 6 mins

1-0 St Mirren. FG 18 mins.

0-2 FG 33 mins.

The positives: good link up play to win the penalty. Nice psych of the goalie to get him diving before taking the shot. White won everything in the air when he came on. Defence wasn't particularly troubled after the goal. Longridge was making good runs up the left. We had a hatful of chances. Other results meant we didn't lose ground.

The negatives: rolling the ball against the post with half the goal to aim at; not much creativity in midfield, Pittman needs help in that respect. Gibbons is decent but is not really a creative threat. Faria runs about but achieves nothing. Glen works hard but is too remote from Pittman. We don't shoot enough and when we do it is far too often off target. We failed to score against and failed to beat a truly pitiful St Mirren side. We don't look like scoring any time soon.

General comments: we should have won the game, we didn't and that is why we are where we are.

I ask the simple question. how did we lose that game today?

Seriously, St Mirren had one really good, albeit opportunistic, shot at goal, scored and won the game without doing anything else worth of note for the remainder of the match. They were not a good side, organised at the back but little else.

On the other hand Livi miss a penalty, create countless chances by besieging the St Mirren goal for almost the entire second half and can't hit the back of the net.

Why?, Someone tell me please. I'm stumped

fanfromday1 wrote:I ask the simple question. how did we lose that game today?

Seriously, St Mirren had one really good, albeit opportunistic, shot at goal, scored and won the game without doing anything else worth of note for the remainder of the match. They were not a good side, organised at the back but little else.

On the other hand Livi miss a penalty, create countless chances by besieging the St Mirren goal for almost the entire second half and can't hit the back of the net.

Why?, Someone tell me please. I'm stumped  

According to some it is the manager's fault.... They must be wanting him to pick himself??

Bertie Bassett wrote:The positives: good link up play to win the penalty. Nice psych of the goalie to get him diving before taking the shot. White won everything in the air when he came on. Defence wasn't particularly troubled after the goal. Longridge was making good runs up the left. We had a hatful of chances. Other results meant we didn't lose ground.

The negatives: rolling the ball against the post with half the goal to aim at; not much creativity in midfield, Pittman needs help in that respect. Gibbons is decent but is not really a creative threat. Faria runs about but achieves nothing. Glen works hard but is too remote from Pittman. We don't shoot enough and when we do it is far too often off target. We failed to score against and failed to beat a truly pitiful St Mirren side. We don't look like scoring any time soon.

General comments: we should have won the game, we didn't and that is why we are where we are.

Yep, other than not being able to put the ball in the net we didn't do a lot wrong in this game, created enough chances to win the game twice over and can't get much easier a chance than a penalty but we're just not going to get anything if we don't score goals.

Buchanan as well as the pen miss had a clear shot at goal with the just the keeper in front of him but hit it straight at him. Sheerin did everything right when he held off a player, got himself in the box, and put it past the keeper, but somehow it didn't go in. Sheerin again had a wonderful chance with the goal gaping in front of him and only had to guide it inside the post but blasted it wide/over. There were some others but these were def clear cut ones, I was left bewildered at how we hadn't scored with all the chances we had.

BIB; can't put it any better than that Bertie, it has applied to a few teams now and bottom line is we're not scoring and other teams either get stunning goals against us, defensive blunders helping them score, or just lucky ones, fact is though they're scoring and we're not.

On their goal, not so much a blatant defensive error like Millen backing away from their player but still a bit annoying he was not even put off his shot with one of our players running at him. We were caught out a bit with the ball coming back out to him and nobody was anywhere near him to try and put him off, wonderful strike as it was he had all the time in the world to look up and pick his spot, they had a few earlier goes so it was something we were aware of, them being confident after their cup win and willing to have a pop at goal.

Don't actually think they troubled us with any other shots all game and only had 2 shots on target, though according to the bbc stats so did we and even our pen hit the post so wouldn't have been one of the shots on target..

On an aside, what's up with Mullen not even being on the bench, is he injured?

I know he frustrates the hell out of me with being easily knocked off the ball but he did score against them in an earlier game this season. He is one of the few players in our team able to score from 25 yards, something we lack just now is players taking shots at goal from outside the box and with our goal drought I'm all for giving us as many goal options as possible in a game to try and score..

All over them for the second half but we shot ourselves in the foot when Buchanan missed the penalty. I'm a firm believer that if you're that confident, you can leather it and it'll go in.

Once again though Burchill hasn't got a fucking clue about tactics. Why keep on Faria instead of Gibbons? I'm not even that baffled now. He had a shocker and slowed everything down, gave away silly fouls and has no influence in the midfield. Absolute journeyman robbing a wage at this club.

Only positives I can take is Morgyn Neill is a better RB than Millen and we're better playing a diamond with Buchanan playing behind Shagz and Sheerin.

I've suggested having Buchanan in midfield and having White & Sheerin up front, would work well imo as Buchanan tends to wander about in midfield anyway and would still get in the box with White when Sheerin gets the ball. Having both play off Sheerin is bound to get us goals. Would also give Pittman someone to work with in midfield.

Also noticed White won a few good knock downs with headers but nobody was running off him to get them, prob because he's been a sub and not played lately and players haven't formed an understanding with one another.

Really would like to see all 3 of them starting and Mullen being a sub to bring on for either one of them later on.

The midfield isn't happening for us but with Sheerin being able to hold off players and bring in Buchanan or White it isn't really a problem, White too is able to get balls played to him, as long as he has someone up beside him. Buchanan can also hold off players well enough, so all 3 playing together would create chances for one another without having to rely on it being played through the midfield.

I said pre match if we get the first goal we'd win comfortably and I think if Buchanan had scored his pen then that's what would've happened. Think we're just a bit too tense and trying too hard, getting the goal would've relaxed us a bit and more would've followed. If we click in front of goal someone is going to get a right pumping. We were like that last season too though beating some teams well with 4 or 5 goals, would rather we were a bit more consistant and score a couple every game.

Didn't deserve to lose and I think the players were quite unlucky throughout the game as St. Mirren were toilet and fluked a goal with one of their two solid chances, as opposed to the five or six we had.

The thing that really pissed me off yet again though was the substitution of Georgiev late in the game. The common cliche is that the definition of insanity is trying the same thing again and again and expecting different results. Why, oh why, oh why, did he put on someone that has showed absolutely fuck all in every game I've watched this season? Absolute sand-dancer who has pace but can be pushed off the ball like a fairy. What message does this send to Duckrell and Currie on the bench that despite not being tried in a competitive setting, Burchill continues to play this guy over them? Why give them deals in the first place? If they came on consistently and were shite, I would not blame him for putting Georgiev on on the basis of experience but for fucks sake, if it's not working, try something different.

Burchill needs to wise the fuck up before all the fans turn against him. My apathy and that of many others is clearly as large as he has been for a long, long time and it's down to frustrating pish like this.

EdinburghLivi wrote:The thing that really pissed me off yet again though was the substitution of Georgiev late in the game. The common cliche is that the definition of insanity is trying the same thing again and again and expecting different results. Why, oh why, oh why, did he put on someone that has showed absolutely fuck all in every game I've watched this season? Absolute sand-dancer who has pace but can be pushed off the ball like a fairy. What message does this send to Duckrell and Currie on the bench that despite not being tried in a competitive setting, Burchill continues to play this guy over them? Why give them deals in the first place? If they came on consistently and were shite, I would not blame him for putting Georgiev on on the basis of experience but for fucks sake, if it's not working, try something different.

I've heard Duckrell is shite and his only attribute is his pace. And I don't like the excuse of Currie not getting game time because we're not winning 3 or 4-0. Burchill, wake up and realise we're not gonna beat ANY team by that score. If you rate his talent, give him a chance. I'm sure Currie or any young, hungry footballer would want to show their worth in a relegation battle than pissing about mid-table with zero ambition to go higher.

If that's true about Duckrell, does that make him any different from Georgiev?

And to be honest, we're dying on a bit of pace.

EdinburghLivi wrote:If that's true about Duckrell, does that make him any different from Georgiev?

And to be honest, we're dying on a bit of pace.

Very true. We're not exactly blessed with pacey players and other than Keaghan Jacobs, we've not been blessed with many in recent years either.

Personally I'd prefer Georgiev on ahead of Garry Glen; apart from the pace thing there's also an end product that I've failed to see from Glen this season. Loads of effort but then an appalling punt into no-man's land; miles away from any of our players.

Its difficult to say anything conclusive about Duckrell based on any about 10 minutes playing time thus far. He seemed to have good pace and ball control but then I thought that of Sekaja so who knows - time will tell I suppose. However saying he's sh1te without seeing him play seems a little unfair.

Was interesting to see that White on occasions wanted to come back and help defend corners but was told quite clearly by Gallagher to stay up field with Buchanan ensuring that St Mirren kept 3/4 players back to help shore up their defence. Was a bit irritated by his insistence to stray out to the left wing; with three potential strikers inboard) would have preferred him in the centre sandwiched by Sherrin and Buchanan.

As previously said I don't consider Pittman as a defensive midfielder; does a lot better in the Keaghan Jacobs role.