Livi v QoS

Massive game for us, in that our following 2 league games are against Sevco and Falkirk, and we wouldn't be likely to get anything from them. A win would take some pressure off us going into those games too.

The teams around us have difficult fixture this weekend (Sevco, Hibs & Morton) so if we could get 3 points it would put us into 7th place and open up a 3 point gap on St Mirren. Just hope a new manager is in and Hopkin doesn't get the job, not impressed with his Burchill esque tinkering,


Would like to see us put out a team with some balance to it, White & Buchanan leading the line, Mullen & Longridge on the wings, Pittman- Glen--Faria in midfield, Gallagher-Gordon-Neill defence, McCallum/DJ in goals.

I know Hippo gets some stick and isn't rated by a few on here but I think him and Mullen on either wing would be good too, a 2nd half sub appearance for him to come on and do his stuff, would also use Sheerin and Esposito for our subs.

Here's hoping we get off to a flyer for 2016...sadly my in-built cynicism says not.

Can't see a new manager being appointed in time for this.

Liv 1 QoS 2 FG 18 mins

If we can win this we'd have salvaged something from the shocking start to this run of 5 games that we should have got at least 8 points from. A win here would have us on 7 points from those games, although still frustrating chucking away 2 points against Dumbarton, and the shocking display against Alloa, it would still get us up to 7th place and in the driving seat over the other 3 teams.

Still need some consistency for when we go into the next quarter against these teams, not sure Hopkin can give us that.

If Hopkin puts out the same XI as he did against St Mirren (minus McCallum, of course), we have a great chance here. Queens seem to be fair to middling and they aren't a million miles away from us in the league, with an inferior goal difference too. It's fair to say we humped them last time we played them, so it'll be interesting to see how they respond to that. Hopefully no dodgy tactical decisions and get the same level of effort from the players again as the last two games. Would love to see Danny Mullen start this one, really made a positive impact on Tuesday night when he came on and was unlucky not to score.

Optimistically, a 2-1 Livi win with the first goal on 34 minutes.

According to the Courier, the club is in discussion with Dundee United with a view to extending McCallum's loan period in time for Saturday.

It is also reporting that the club hopes to have confirmed a new manager before the game despite my thoughts to the contrary above.

Surprisingly looking forward to this game,weather permitting of course.The forecast for Saturday doesnt look too healthy im affraid so be prepared to wrap up well.Imo anything other than a defeat would be a bonus,although i feel until they get the manager situation sorted out we wont know what Livi team will turn up.Anyway a Guid New Year to you one all.Have a good one.Cheers.

Got a feeling this will be a 2-2 draw but i'll  plump for an optimistic new year's 2-1 Livi win, fg 37 mins.

Happy new year everyone.

1-0 Queens and the end of Hopkin as manager. 16 mins.

2-1 Livi, FG 23 mins

2-0 Livingston. FG 50 mins.

Anyone know if that Esposito boy can play today? I'm sure I read somewhere that although the SFA aren't in their offices today, the registration of players can still be submitted then accepted remotely. Would be good to see him get a run out, only heard positive things about him as a player.

Certainly wish he had been available at least that would have given us something new instead of the same old garbage that they have been serving up for most of the month.

We were doing okay (not doing well, I hasten to add but doing okay) until the opening goal; thereafter we lost all semblance of balance & shape & it was a matter of how many.

Sheerin made an improvement when he came on but not enough to change the game.

Mullen should not be playing yet; he is nowhere near sharp enough.

Defensively we were lackadaisical & that contributed to the second goal in particular.

Hopefully this has shown the board that Hopkin would simply repeat what Burchill was doing. Keeping him as manager, even as caretaker until the end of the season would not improve anything.

Just more of the same predictable, slow paced shite before we gave away two painfully easy goals.

Rubbish, new ideas needed rapidly.

Don't think we were doing okay till the goal Bertie, first half we played it out with not much danger from Queens either but 2nd half we lost the midfield, and just retreated into our shell again, as we did against Dumbarton. It was wave after wave coming at us until the inevitable QoS goal.

Mullen seemed out of sorts today, whenever we broke he tripped over the ball or stumbled and lost it, Hippo wasn't much better when he came on, apart from his throw ins I wouldn't have known he was on. Glen's crosses were too floaty and easily dealt with, the only one that caused them trouble was a header down from a floated corner that hit a Livi player on the shin and neither he nor their keeper knew much about it as it came off him and went straight at their keeper. Pittman was playing too far back to be an attacking threat, our midfield was just pants 2nd half.

Buchanan and White were getting the usual service of balls hit long for them to chase, wasn't until about 68 mins we had a serious shot on goal from Sheerin when he came on.

We just had no goal threat at all today, chronic stuff, we better have a new manager in soon because Hopkin just isn't an option.

Atrocious. We are incapable of competing. One shot at goal in 90 minutes is a disgrace.
Hopkin has the cheek to say the players are unfit for three games in seven days. They're full time professionals what was he and Burchill doing with them? Guys an idiot.

Another poor game. I don't mind a defeat if I think the players have given 100%. With the exception of Faria, Pittman and Sheerin, when he came on, I didn't see any of that today.
Disappointing.

Liviforever wrote:Don't think we were doing okay till the goal Bertie, first half we played it out with not much danger from Queens either but 2nd half we lost the midfield, and just retreated into our shell again, as we did against Dumbarton. It was wave after wave coming at us until the inevitable QoS goal.

Mullen seemed out of sorts today, whenever we broke he tripped over the ball or stumbled and lost it, Hippo wasn't much better when he came on, apart from his throw ins I wouldn't have known he was on. Glen's crosses were too floaty and easily dealt with, the only one that caused them trouble was a header down from a floated corner that hit a Livi player on the shin and neither he nor their keeper knew much about it as it came off him and went straight at their keeper. Pittman was playing too far back to be an attacking threat, our midfield was just pants 2nd half.

Buchanan and White were getting the usual service of balls hit long for them to chase, wasn't until about 68 mins we had a serious shot on goal from Sheerin when he came on.

We just had no goal threat at all today, chronic stuff, we better have a new manager in soon because Hopkin just isn't an option.

Sorry; I didn't mean to convey that what I saw was acceptable; I merely meant that until Queens scored they didn't actually look like scoring themselves. Once they did it was game over.

Bertie Bassett wrote:

Liviforever wrote:Don't think we were doing okay till the goal Bertie, first half we played it out with not much danger from Queens either but 2nd half we lost the midfield, and just retreated into our shell again, as we did against Dumbarton. It was wave after wave coming at us until the inevitable QoS goal.

Mullen seemed out of sorts today, whenever we broke he tripped over the ball or stumbled and lost it, Hippo wasn't much better when he came on, apart from his throw ins I wouldn't have known he was on. Glen's crosses were too floaty and easily dealt with, the only one that caused them trouble was a header down from a floated corner that hit a Livi player on the shin and neither he nor their keeper knew much about it as it came off him and went straight at their keeper. Pittman was playing too far back to be an attacking threat, our midfield was just pants 2nd half.

Buchanan and White were getting the usual service of balls hit long for them to chase, wasn't until about 68 mins we had a serious shot on goal from Sheerin when he came on.

We just had no goal threat at all today, chronic stuff, we better have a new manager in soon because Hopkin just isn't an option.

Sorry; I didn't mean to convey that what I saw was acceptable; I merely meant that until Queens scored they didn't actually look like scoring themselves. Once they did it was game over.

Agree they weren't a threat in the first half but I could see the goal coming in the 2nd half as we weren't getting the ball played up into their half at all, it was just a boot to clear the back line and the ball kept coming back again. We sat in and allowed QoS to come back at us without pressing them in midfield.

That's us back to 9th place with Sevco & Falkirk in our next 2 league games, we'll have to hope Alloa, St Mirren & Dumbarton don't win any of their next 2 games.

Worrying thing is I read the board offered Hopkin the job if he wanted it, if that is true then they would've been as well keeping Burchill in charge and letting him work for his pay instead of paying him gardening leave for the next 18 months. We need to get someone in that can motivate the players and get the best out of them, too many are just going through the motions in games just now.

Ian Murray was at the game again today. Something tells me he will be hired on Monday. 

Best of a bad bunch we have lined up. Fucking relegate us now and be done with it!

If Ian Murray was at the game today he won't touch us with a barge pole on Monday

That was just awful

http://www.deadlinenews.co.uk/2016/01/02/livingston-caretaker-manager-david-hopkin-seeking-answers/

Maybe he would have got a bit more effort from the youngsters on the bench

That was embarrassing.Hopkins has brought nothing new to our tactics or lack of.
You could see the game was going in Queens favour as they were working harder and generally much better, I said to people round me that it was gearing up to suit Lyle and if he was coming on he'd score within minutes.
Its easy for us to sit in the stand and comment but Hopkins and Martindale where missing/ignoring the obvious - is it the point they don't care or lack the skills/experience.

Hopkins comment bout the players not being fit due to the number of games is disgraceful - they're full time professionals.

orco wrote:http://www.deadlinenews.co.uk/2016/01/02/livingston-caretaker-manager-david-hopkin-seeking-answers/

Maybe he would have got a bit more effort from the youngsters on the bench

Where's Spas, is he injured? No sign (quite literally) of Esposito yet either.

Yeah Orco, Currie would've put in more effort than Glen, would rather have seen him play against QoS.

Esposito won't be able to play until next week since his registration can't go through until offices open tomorrow. 

Hopefully a new manager will be appointed in the next few days, not going to turn us into Barcelona overnight but hopefully a few loan deals or pick up decent players for next to nothing and turn us around because at the moment it looks like relegation play offs at best.