How do you rate our chances this season?

As our first pre season friendly approaches this Saturday, it gives us our first glimpse of a new team in a new league. 
Looking at the Players we have at the moment, we stand a decent chance at competing for the title. People keep going on about Alloa and the brilliant players they have signed, but honestly don't see anything that looks that good. 
The only things we lack at the moment are a proper manager and a decent striker. Defensively we look ok and midfield sounds promising with the new guys we have brought in. 

Looking forward to this season already, thinking a top 4 finish. Would certainly keep me happy.

Think Alloa are building a half decent squad and Airdrie signing Russell will have them looking up too, don't know much about other teams. Admittedly don't know much about ours either but I'm quite excited, hopefully Hopkin and Martindale's shiteness doesn't get in the way too much and we find ourselves back in the Championship next season.

Looking forward to it.

Survival is all I'm hoping for; we have nothing that could be called a manager or an assistant manager; we have weakened our striking options; we have signed a bunch of players that couldn't get out of the division we are in & have brought in no one with any "experience". We have signed a keeper from the juniors as back up to DJ who couldn't keep his place last season & was a shadow of the keeper we saw the season before.

If England's national team lacked leadership; tactics & talent then we are a million times worse at best.

With the current squad & management...we'll do well to finish 8th - hopefully we'll be sorting out our season tickets this week.

Few trialists at the club, one expected to play up front against Dunfermline. Still plenty of time for more signings too.

To early to say how i think we will do this season.As has been said half the squad are an unknown entity and the lack of movement in the transfer market to strenghthen our forward line is a worry that concerns me at the moment.Having said that the bookies have us as 3/1 joint favourites with Alloa to take the title and they dont often get it wrong,there again they also told us that England were an absolute certainty to gub Iceland.Nuff said.Roll on Saturday!!!.

I'd hope a few of our players from last season (the ones we have left) will be stand outs in League One, Pittman, Buchanan, Halkett and Longridge. Mullin was pretty good in this league for AR before we signed him and Cadden sounds promising, so it isn't all doom and gloom.

Mullen might just amaze us and step up to the plate now we've dropped a league too, and maybe young Knox will benefit from being up against players at this level, same with Currie.  

Will have to wait and see how the defence gets on in the pre season games and the cup ones before I get overly optimistic though, and still not confident about Hopkin remaining in charge.

Still, canny wait for the season to start and also quite looking forward to our first pre season game on Sat.

From Callum Carson:
Expect at least one trialist striker for Livi in friendlies next week. Mullen out injured and Hopkin wanting to sign one or two front men.

Injured before the season starts, great. We were needing strikers anyway as over the course of a season you're always going to get injuries and suspensions, plus it's always good to have front options when things aren't working. We better pray Buchanan stays injury free all season though as he's the only quality striker we have. Can't see us signing a striker as good as him on our budget.

I think we've a new signing in midfield that scored quite a few goals in this league last season though and we'll spread the goals around more than we did last season, so we wont be as reliant on the front men all the time. Still not seen enough of Knox to justify all the hype surrounding him but he takes quality free kicks and with the balls he puts in we should get a few goals from them.

We do also have Sommerville although I'm not sure how well he did out on loan last season I think someone mentioned he'd been pretty impressive.

Still think allowing Sheerin to leave was a mistake; thought he could have certainly swtarted to make an impact in League 1.

Agree that Sheerin could have thrived in this division but it was clear as soon as Hoppy took over that Sheerin was living on borrowed time.

Agree with LF's comments regarding several players we have in the squad. On paper they should flourish, however it all depends if Hopkin actually utilises them to their potential.

I'll refrain from making judgement until we've played some matches at least, initially however I'm not confident given the speed in which Hopkin was kept on, and the lack of signings compared to those departing.

If Darren Cole is playing on Saturday it'll be a trainwreck of a season.

I don't and subsequently have zero enthusiasm for this season.

The manager should have changed and until we get a lot of convincing wins, I'll remain completely skeptical of him.

I can't see us finishing anywhere lower than the top three purely because of our full-time status. I think Alloa will be more of a challenge as they've got the kind of manager we should've went for when Burchill got binned or at the end of last season. Plus, they've recruited wisely.

Only positive I can see is that we've signed players who won the league with Morton a couple of years ago so they should know what it takes, but they didn't exactly blitz that league either so that doesn't fill me with great confidence.

And despite the early recruitment, we've still only got two recognisable strikers with one of them currently injured (again).

Full time status didn't help last season... We lost in extra time to a part time team

Slabbered them in the 2nd leg though, during normal time anyway. Over the season it's usually when we got to Jan our FT status told against the PT teams in this league. We had a lot better players when we came up through the divisions the last time right enough but I still think it should give us an advantage.

Main concern is the manager, he got it badly wrong in the away game to Stranraer, last season our inconsistency was as much down to his tactics and player choice/positioning than anything else. We'll need to string some back to back wins together, not confident Hopkin can do that.

We got lucky in the 95 minutes played at the Vale to get 2 goals in injury time & then lost in ET to a part time team. I maintain that the FT/PT divide is immaterial if the players you have aren't up to it.... too often last season our weren't up to it regardless of tactics (or lack thereof).

LiviCub wrote:I can't see us finishing anywhere lower than the top three purely because of our full-time status. I think Alloa will be more of a challenge as they've got the kind of manager we should've went for when Burchill got binned or at the end of last season. Plus, they've recruited wisely.

FT status didn't seem to help Dunfermline the season before last; think they finished 7th which really should go down as one of the most appalling finishes in Scottish league history. Agree that Alloa have recruited well though, I think Goodwin will be a fairly integral member of their squad and given what I've read about their draw with Dunfermline on Wednesday, he was a class act.

Given the facilities and apparent "luxuries" we have over most teams in the division, we should be winning it. Failure to do so should see DH and the real man in charge consigned to a Siberian gulag.

Bump.

What's everyone's expectations now we're one game away from the halfway mark. Would imagine we're all looking to win the league now.

Biggest surprise for me has been Hopkin, I was quite optimistic we'd have quality players in this league but Hopkin has surpassed all my expectations and shown he can adapt to how different teams play. Has also got us on a 4 league game winning run, which I didn't think he was capable of doing.

The emergence of Carrick as a goal scoring striker has also been a good surprise, that was the one area I had my doubts/fears pre season, he's had a huge influence on our last 4 wins, getting us 10 points clear at the top. Byrne has come into his own since Miller's injury too and really looked good in midfield.

A fairly comfortable season with routine victories. One of the more impressive things is that we've managed to take advantage of teams just below us slipping while we've came out to win games. It did help that Jack Ross left Alloa because if he stayed then I think Alloa wouldn't have slipped up like they have since Goodwin took charge.

It's also been good to see that we've not had any serious challenges in games against teams who are in contention for the promotion places i.e. Airdrie, Alloa and Brechin. It was good to see that we were rattling through teams at the start and since the Albion Rovers defeat, we've become more aware of teams putting men behind the ball.

Hopkin has also got the best out of Pittman, Mullen and Buchanan in most of our games this season. Byrne, Crighton and Lithgow have also stood out with solid performances. And we're finally managing to see some stability in defence. Wouldn't be surprised now if we kept clean sheets in more than half of the games we've got left this season.

I'm not so sure about Ross leaving Alloa made a big difference to them, they had already lost to us and  Airdrie under him, and drew with Stenny, looked like they were starting to crumble when he was still in charge. Livi and Airdrie have beaten them twice each in the league now, seem to have their number. Though we've got Airdrie's number as well, 3 times so far, another once and we get to keep the and put them on our mantelpiece.

The league is looking good just now but there is still half a season to go, we have to drive home our opportunities while confidence is good.

Hoppy has come into his own recently with good use of subs and the team finishing games strongly.

Mid term report, doing better than expected but mustn't rest on their laurels

Bertie Bassett wrote:Survival is all I'm hoping for; we have nothing that could be called a manager or an assistant manager; we have weakened our striking options; we have signed a bunch of players that couldn't get out of the division we are in & have brought in no one with any "experience". We have signed a keeper from the juniors as back up to DJ who couldn't keep his place last season & was a shadow of the keeper we saw the season before.

If England's national team lacked leadership; tactics & talent then we are a million times worse at best.

With the current squad & management...we'll do well to finish 8th - hopefully we'll be sorting out our season tickets this week.

Bertie Bassett wrote:The league is looking good just now but there is still half a season to go, we have to drive home our opportunities while confidence is good.

Hoppy has come into his own recently with good use of subs and the team finishing games strongly.

Mid term report, doing better than expected but mustn't rest on their laurels

That's a bit of an understatement Bertie.

Happily surprised so far, I have to admit. I had an inkling that our FT status would give us an edge in some matches, I think it's been pivotal the past couple of weeks certainly, with all the late goals we've scored. I was also critical of Hopkin after the Albion Rovers match for the manner in which he let all semblance of tactical balance go, but lo behold, something seems to have clicked.

I think the real acid test now, provided we don't become complacent in the league, will be the Scottish Cup. I'm expecting us to get past East Fife, and after that a draw against a Premiership or Championship side would be a fantastic test and gauge for how well the squad really is.

Liviforever wrote:

Bertie Bassett wrote:Survival is all I'm hoping for; we have nothing that could be called a manager or an assistant manager; we have weakened our striking options; we have signed a bunch of players that couldn't get out of the division we are in & have brought in no one with any "experience". We have signed a keeper from the juniors as back up to DJ who couldn't keep his place last season & was a shadow of the keeper we saw the season before.

If England's national team lacked leadership; tactics & talent then we are a million times worse at best.

With the current squad & management...we'll do well to finish 8th - hopefully we'll be sorting out our season tickets this week.

Bertie Bassett wrote:The league is looking good just now but there is still half a season to go, we have to drive home our opportunities while confidence is good.

Hoppy has come into his own recently with good use of subs and the team finishing games strongly.

Mid term report, doing better than expected but mustn't rest on their laurels

That's a bit of an understatement Bertie.

I bet I'm enjoying this season more than you.... I'm getting much more than I expected

Bertie Bassett wrote:

Liviforever wrote:

Bertie Bassett wrote:Survival is all I'm hoping for; we have nothing that could be called a manager or an assistant manager; we have weakened our striking options; we have signed a bunch of players that couldn't get out of the division we are in & have brought in no one with any "experience". We have signed a keeper from the juniors as back up to DJ who couldn't keep his place last season & was a shadow of the keeper we saw the season before.

If England's national team lacked leadership; tactics & talent then we are a million times worse at best.

With the current squad & management...we'll do well to finish 8th - hopefully we'll be sorting out our season tickets this week.

Bertie Bassett wrote:The league is looking good just now but there is still half a season to go, we have to drive home our opportunities while confidence is good.

Hoppy has come into his own recently with good use of subs and the team finishing games strongly.

Mid term report, doing better than expected but mustn't rest on their laurels

That's a bit of an understatement Bertie.

I bet I'm enjoying this season more than you.... I'm getting much more than I expected

I hope so, but I had no real expectation of us winning this league, I just hoped we'd do well and a few of our players would be stand outs. I had no clue what our defence would be like or how well Hopkin would do, so this has been an unexpected surprise for me too, really didn't think we'd be doing so well.

Long way to go yet and every team usually hits a wee sticky patch so hopefully we keep it going a bit longer and give ourselves a huge lead before we hit ours.