Pre Season 2016/17

Scott would do a job for us in this division.

De Vita would be a god send but can't see that happening.

2-2 draw with Morton tonight...guess it must have been a 7pm kick off.

Triallist & Danny Mullen apparently had us in front twice.

Much better but Morton didn't look anything like as good as Dunfermline, can only play what's in front of you though and Morton are in a league above us.

Think that was the same trialist as Sat, scored and had a 1 on 1 which could've/should've put us 2-0 up, looked a lot better tonight. A bit sluggish and slow though but got in amongst the action and timed his runs well. Just after his 1 on 1 we got through again and should've scored with that one too, esp when it spun up off the keeper and landed to a Livi player with an open goal in front of him. So basically we should've been 3-0 up first half but Morton scored in the last seconds of the half to go in level, really didn't deserve their equaliser.
Think it was Lithgow that decided to do a Cole impersonation and get the ball taken off him just outside our box after hanging onto it and trying to be clever beating a player when he was our last defender, we got lucky though and Morton failed to score when through on our goal.

Made a lot of changes 2nd half but we kept our shape and Mullen looked decent when he came on and replaced the trialist goal scorer and scored our 2nd goal. He was lively and won a lot of headers which surprised me, he's looking sharp.

Cadden again played well, as did Watt, two good looking signings, Knox wasn't as good as he was on Sat, a bit too slow to release the ball and a tad greedy at times too, looking to beat players when Livi players were in spaces or making runs.

Was a decent run out though and we looked a lot better defensively, though still need to work on a few things there, I don't think Morton were good enough to take advantage of our mistakes like Dunfermline did so wouldn't get too carried away about how much we've improved.

Didn't notice any of the other trialists much, the young looking black player that came on 2nd half looked like he was trying his best to get in amongst the action, pressing well and making runs but nothing really came from it, might be worth another game to see if he's any good.

Spot the deliberate mistake:

Lions held to a draw by premiership side Morton in a much improved performance this evening.

Maybe it's a premonition, though they don't look as good as they were last season so doubt they'll make the top 4 for the play offs.

The guy announcing our subs made a few mistakes too, getting players names in the wrong order of who came on for who and when they came on.

Mullen has always been good in the air for his height. In White's first season, Mullen was better in the air than him.

Interestingly Darren Cole no longer appears on the team sheet on the official site - hadn't heard he'd left?

As for the game I thought the defence looked a lot better than Saturday; effectively Morton only got one shot on target in the first half which I thought Maley could have done a lot better with. In addition as far as I can recall Morton only had one real shot on target in the second half.

Had Josh Mullin put away some of his "open goal" opportunities in the first half we could have been really out of sight by the end of the first half. On occasions Morton put on some pressure and we started to flap a bit; but things then settled down and we would start to take control again.

The no 18 trialist who came on in the second half was the same one as from Saturday and frankly I saw nothing to justify another appearance; too nervous and bottled out on too many challenges.

Kudus Oyenuga had a reasonably good first half, certainly seemed a lot more fired up than Saturday; am worried about reports that he does appear to impress in trials and then does bugger all when he's got a contract but maybe we'll find out for ourselves.

The lanky black lad who came on in the second half and played up front certainly seemed to have no fear whatsoever - would be interested to see him in another match; agree with Liviforever in that it didn't seem that he was getting given the ball at all and was therefore trying to get it for himself but towards the end it seemed he was starting to link up well with a few of the other players. As I recall division one tended to be a lot more physical than the championship so it would certainly be worth having another look at him.

As for the other trialists I'm afraid neither of them really made any sort of impression (I suppose the fact that one of them remained on the bench might excuse him for that).

Finally does anyone else thing that Sinclair looks like prince Harry?

I thought he could've done better with their 2nd goal too, was thinking DJ normally does better with blocking 1 on 1's as he was slow getting out and didn't get down at his feet quick enough to block it, but it wasn't DJ in goals.

Noticed last night that Cole's pic wasn't on the squad page in our website, they better not be toying with us.

Agreed about the improved display from the team last night.Thought Liam Watt had a good game till he was taken off.Defence for me still a bit ropey and still have to cut out the slack passing all over the pitch.Good to see Danny back though i still think he needs more help up front,possibly when we have seen more of Kudos in the remaining pre season he might be worthy of a contract.Still think it is an aforesight from the club to have made Saturdays fans forum for season ticket holders only,the reason being i know first hand of a few regular supporters who would like to have attended this meeting.Theyr absence for me demeans this chance for good people to put across their thoughts and concerns for the coming season and beyond.An own goal from them upstairs if ever there was one.Will be interesting to see the turnout for this lovefest.Like our current attendances a lot of fans have become dissillusiond by the club and its going to take a mighty effort to get them back on board.I await with baited breath!!

Another Livi forum reporting Kudas Oyenoga signing. Not good reports from Cowdenbeath but his goals look good on Youtube. Might get the best out of him?

ianlivi wrote:Another Livi forum reporting Kudas Oyenoga signing. Not good reports from Cowdenbeath but his goals look good on Youtube. Might get the best out of him?

Not particularly good reports from Dundee United or Hartlepool either; the idea that he does well in trials but then doesn't seem to bother his ar5e after getting a contract seems to have been a recurring theme in the past. Hopefully the young man has realised that his chances to secure a career in football are running out and he now needs to knuckle under - certainly it seemed from his performance on Tuesday night that he has what it takes to make the grade - but does he have the desire?

Not sure our management team really have what it takes to bring the best out of players either but maybe I'm in a "glass-half-empty" mood today.

Sounds like another Gay Glen or Darren Cole, looks good in one game then does nothing the next 10. Wasn't impressed at all with him in the Dunfermline game but might just be a case of him finding his feet and settling in more against Morton. I would like to see the other trialist that came on 2nd half against Morton who played up front, he had more energy about him, really need to see these guys a few times to see if they're any good.

Christian Nade has just signed for Stranraer, I'll be a bit disappointed if we never even thought about offering him a contract, should do really well in League 1.

Big battering ram with no pace, would've been as well keeping Sheerin if we were offering Nade a contract, so doubt we thought about him.

I'd rather have a battering ram that will score plenty of goals than Sheerin though tbh.

LiviLion wrote:I'd rather have a battering ram that will score plenty of goals than Sheerin though tbh.

Plenty of goals?

Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
2011–2012	Tottenham Hotspur	0	(0)
2011	MyPa - Finland (loan)	3	(0)
2011	Bury(loan)	1	(0)
2012	St Johnstone (loan)	1	(0)
2012–2013	Hayes & Yeading United	40	(18)
2013–2015	Dundee United	1	(0)
2014	Boreham Wood (loan)	16	(3)
2014–2015	Cowdenbeath (loan)	17	(5)
2015–2016	Hartlepool United	8	(1)

Sheerin by comparison had a pretty impressive record in the juniors.

LiviLion wrote:I'd rather have a battering ram that will score plenty of goals than Sheerin though tbh.

That's not what i'm saying but I think Sheerin would've scored goals in League One IF given a chance. What i'm saying is no point dumping a player and replacing him with the same type of player.

Durnford wrote:

LiviLion wrote:I'd rather have a battering ram that will score plenty of goals than Sheerin though tbh.

Plenty of goals?

Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
2011–2012	Tottenham Hotspur	0	(0)
2011	MyPa - Finland (loan)	3	(0)
2011	Bury(loan)	1	(0)
2012	St Johnstone (loan)	1	(0)
2012–2013	Hayes & Yeading United	40	(18)
2013–2015	Dundee United	1	(0)
2014	Boreham Wood (loan)	16	(3)
2014–2015	Cowdenbeath (loan)	17	(5)
2015–2016	Hartlepool United	8	(1)

Sheerin by comparison had a pretty impressive record in the juniors.

I was talking about Nade, who scored 7 goals in 12 games in the Championship last season (as well as a couple in the premiership), as opposed to Sheerin who got 3 in 29.

Think he would have been worth looking at considering we'll probably end up punting the ball up to Buchanan/Mullen, would be good to have an option who could get onto those long balls and send Bucks/Mullen on a run. Moot point anyway considering he's signed up elsewhere, not been to any of the friendlies so for all I know one of the trialists has been like that anyway.

LiviLion wrote:I was talking about Nade, who scored 7 goals in 12 games in the Championship last season (as well as a couple in the premiership), as opposed to Sheerin who got 3 in 29.

Think he would have been worth looking at considering we'll probably end up punting the ball up to Buchanan/Mullen, would be good to have an option who could get onto those long balls and send Bucks/Mullen on a run. Moot point anyway considering he's signed up elsewhere, not been to any of the friendlies so for all I know one of the trialists has been like that anyway.

Okay; see where you're coming from although I do think Sheerin's 29 appearances is a bit misleading seeing as how most were no more than about 10 minutes and were any more than 45 minutes? In the previous season he scored 42 goals by playing regularly for Mussleburgh but all to often appeared to be lower in the pecking order than Gary Glen (at least for the first half of the season).

I never rated Nade although he was often held in high esteem by his own team's supporters (particularly Dundee). I don't believe though there was a cat in hell's chance of him joining us after the abuse he regularly received from a section of our support. Also for a big man he did spend an inordinate amount of time rolling on the ground. For someone so slow it amazed me how he actually managed to score any goals - mind you I'd have said the same for Colin Nish.

Despite Hopkin saying he'd bring back the U-20s and bringing in a manager for the team, it looks like we've not registered to compete in the East Development league, even after an update on the SPFLs website as recently as yesterday - http://spfl.co.uk/development-league/east/

Fixtures have also been released but there does appear to be a blank space for one more team which looks like it'll be us.

Pre Dumbarton Nade's goals to games ratio was nothing special, 3 goals from 13 games at Dundee/6 from 18 at Raith/2 from 17 at Accies/and 21 from 186 from all the other teams he played for before those.  Dumbarton is the only team he's actually scored a decent amount of goals, 7 from 12 games.

As Durnford said, Sheerin wasn't given a run of games or even a full game so you can't compare like for like on goals scored last season for him and Nade.

Personally didn't think Nade was any great shakes in games against us, he was big and awkward right enough but so was Sheerin. Don't think Hopkin wants that type of player or he'd have given Sheerin some full games.

Nade is a far, far superior player to Sheerin.

Aye well that's your opinion, don't think sheerin was given the chance to see how good he was. Nade is nothing but an average lower league journeyman.

Probably because he was still carrying a tyre after a year of full-time training. I wouldn't have given him a chance either. No footballing ability, his only attribute is that he is a unit, of which Nade is a far better one.