Edinburgh City v Livi

Half of me thinks this should be a comfortable win, the other half can see City going for it and giving us a bit of a fright. Sounds like we've looked impressive and I'm gutted I won't get to this.

3-0 Livi, FG 17 mins.

I'd settle for us keeping a clean sheet and winning 1-0, just to show we've got it in us to see out a game, but we should be winning this 2-0 or 3-1 without any dramas.

I'll plump for a conservative 2-1 Livi as i'm not confident we can go a game without conceding a goal. FG 13 mins.

I think City will be pumped up for this one, their first game as an SPFL club and their first in the Scottish League Cup (aka Betfred Cup) and with the exception of Hearts and Hibs we are the nearest thing to a derby and add in our former incarnation as MTFC and the return to our first league home.

History in the making...

City 1 Liv 1 with City sneaking it on pens

FG 14 mins

It really depends on whether Hopkins is to play a settled team or another experimental however I am going to go with 4 - nil to the Livi with the first goal on 25 minutes

Can't make the game unfortunately but would like to see same team as Saturday but maybe with Pittman starting instead of Sinclair think Hopkins will save making changes until the Friendly with Hartlepool

Immensely looking forward to this game. Quite optimistic about our chances given how we've been playing so far (Dunfermline apart), would love to see us continue some good attacking movement and knock in a few goals. Curious to see if Carrick starts or if it will be the same team as Saturday.

That said, Edinburgh City will definitely be out to make a point. Hopefully we don't ease off thinking we're playing a lesser team than what we have been recently.

4-1 Livi, FG 12 mins.

Attendance: 507.

Number of goals and assists from Nicky Cadden = 3.

Number of tear-stained posts on P&B from "tamthebam" yearning for Livi to go out the game = 4.

Well we won, comfortably enough in the end I suppose. It wasn't as good a performance as Saturday's but they got the job done.

Good luck to City for the rest of the season, they showed enough good play to suggest they can avoid being as bad as Shire were last season.

For us.... Mullin again impressed, as did Miller and Byrne. Cadden seemed to go into the tackle that ended his match a wee bit half heartedly, which is possibly why he got hurt. Hope he is ok tho.

Carrick put in a workmanlike shift, Mullen took his goal well (great cross in from Mullin btw). Defence coped with most things but City did get through with some good quick passing on occasion. Good save from Kelly on one of those moves. Kelly on the whole has yet to fill me with confidence.

Knox took a few knocks but struggled on, showed some nice touches but is still very raw, moving to a bigger team now would be a waste, he'd be far better off trying to make the starting XI here.

Buchanan looked more involved than on Saturday and obviously knicked a goal.

Watt looked like he could put in some distance shots, looked more effective than Orr did on Saturday

The main thing is we won.

Buchanan made a big difference when he came on, added zip to our attack and constantly hassled their defenders, much more like himself.

Mullin was impressive, Cadden not so much but set up our first goal with a cheeky chip from the free kick. I also thought he didn't fully commit to the tackle that injured him and that's why he got injured, him and Mullin are going to be big players for us this season so hope he recovers quickly.

Good goal from Mullen too, i'm liking these balls in from Cadden against St Mirren and Mullin tonight for these kind of goals. Good to see Buchanan finally getting a goal after having 2 chopped off, he worked his arse off and deserved it, also thought Watt deserved a goal for his efforts but wasn't to be, their keeper made a good save on his shot.

We've a cracking midfield with good quality cover from the bench too, I actually think this squad looks better than last season, though still early days to be getting carried away. Can't wait for the league to start to see how we get on against Stranraer.

We have much better balance than last season with Mullin and Cadden out wide.

I would still like our strike force to be closer to each other and more of a partnership. So far the subs come on and with the exception of Orr (possibly from lack of match awareness) they have looked to make an impression. So as a squad it does look a bit better. We really won't know until we are into the bread and butter of the league and I was disappointed that we didn't keep the tempo up at Saturday's level... but part of that would possibly be the way Saints played compared to the way City played.

Credit where it is due, some of City's pass & move interchanges were the most attractive passages of play over both games, especially the move that ended with Kelly making a very good save resulting in a corner.

On the subject of Kelly, I mentioned earlier that he has yet to fill me with confidence and thinking about it, he never looks like he is "ready"; he just sort of stands there; that said he has made a couple of very good saves.

Yeah our level of performance dipped a bit from the St Johnstone friendly and St Mirren cup game, but we lost games like this last season after really good performances against good teams the game before. We still created a lot of chances, two chopped off and another 3 or 4 very good shots either hitting the woodwork or being saved. I'd be happy if we can do that in the league too, we aren't going to get top level performances in every game but if we can score 3 goals and win games when playing scrappy i'll take it.

Agree with you BB regarding the 'keeper, had a feeling he wasn't up to much on Saturday and several points last night just compounded that view. Seems a second or two behind when it comes to thinking where to distribute the ball, and I haven't seen him come out for a cross yet which is worrying. That said, he did make a cracking save from their boy towards the end of the game, but is he really a step up on DJ? I wouldn't say so.

Overall, a professional job from us against a resilient City side. It was interesting insight into how we may well have to play for a good number of games this coming season, trying to break teams down with the onus on us to attack. Thought we did alright considering it's still early days on in the season, was impressed with Josh Mullin again and thought Mikey Miller had another good game in midfield. Disappointing to lose Cadden though, but hopefully he's back before the Stranraer game as I thought our attacking intensity dropped after he went off.

If we can win next Tuesday against Ayr then we've set ourselves up for a good finish against Hamilton.

Couldnt make the game last night as i was at work.Sounds as if the lions had a reasonably comfortable night by most accounts albeit against a team lower than us in the standings.Good news about Caddens injury not being more serious than we first thought.Still feels like pre season for me having watched four of our first five games and finding a level of consitency that will hopefully stand us in good stead for the start of the season proper on Aug 6th.Hartlepool on Sat should be treated as an enjoyable day out with no pressure on us whatsoever and another chance for us keep the momentum going.Looking forward to it.Well done last night Livi!!!

Entertaining enough game - Did get the feeling we took our foot off the accelerator in the second half perhaps as a mark of respect to Edinburgh City; particularly when we started dribbling the ball into the corner flag to burn up time rather than go on the attack again.

Still not sure about Kelly at all but maybe Hopkins is still testing him out.

Going into the corner when you are 3-0 up is taking the mick. Didn't like that at all. Would have understood it if we had only been 1 up but the game was over.

Might have been practicing seeing out a game, but it could come back to bite us in the ass too if it comes down to GD for one of the four 2nd place teams qualifying. We should have been trying to score more goals.

Exactly

I noticed LiviTV at the last few games but have yet to see any highlights. Are these guys just using it as a free way to get into games now?