Livi v Stranraer (the League Opener)

Much better than I expected, particularly how we started and finished the game. Still don't feel comfortable with our defence due to a lack of pace and communication. We look like we can score goals but we won't be far off conceding as many.

It got nervy at 2-1 when they pulled one back, and then Kelly had to make a one handed save at full stretch to stop it going in the top corner. We sat back on our lead 2nd half and allowed Stranraer time to build up attacks, and got punished for it. Thankfully we got our fingers out when Buchanan came on and stepped it up again. Don't know what the penalty was for I was watching the ball as we went wide to collect it, but well put away by Buchanan. Watt was tremendous when he came on, brilliant play to set Buchanan up for his 2nd and hit the bar for it to drop to Pittman for his 2nd goal too.  

Felt Buchanan dropped deep again but moved up when Mullen was subbed, wish Hopkin would get him playing up front all the time as he chases after the ball and forces defenders into playing it quickly, not giving them time to build from the back. Cracking move and finish by Mullen for our 2nd goal, quick passes and bang, in the back of the net. I'd say Pittman was MOTM, would like to see Watt start though, he was only on a few minutes and made a huge impact on the game.

Great to see us winning our opening game, looking forward to next week against Airdrie.

Oh and Nade was shite, should've had a 2nd yellow for a deliberate hand ball to set up his shot at goal which wasn't given for using his hand to bring it under control. Big useless lump falls down when you sneeze in his direction.

Not good enough I'm afraid. Need to be sticking 8 past these diddies and conceding is an absolute disgrace.

Top of the league though so its not all bad.

Had 3-1 on so I'm pretty raging. I thought it was slightly ironic that we scored two pearlers after we have had continuous scored against us.

We scored 5 and had countless disallowed but I'm still slightly concerned, not sure if we ever really cut them open. Im sure they had their best 2/3 players missing, certainly it was a much different side from last season. Still it was good to get it right up the Stranraer coaches and keeper. Martindale must have been buzzing when Hoppy got sent to the stand, to be honest we actually played better.

Next week should be very interesting, and I won't be able to make it. Fantastic.

We're a fickle bunch aren't we? Win our first game 5-1, top of the league and still not entirely happy. Are these concerns justified?

Well IMO Yes. We should have blow them away in the first half with 2 cracking goals but unfortunately the defensive frailities from last season were on show again in the second half. If Kelly hadn't pulled off that magnificent save then its anybody's guess what could have happened as we were cast adrift at that point.

As has been said Stranraer weren't at their strongest today but still managed to cause panic in our defence until that penalty settled us down again. We need to cut out the slack and half-hearted passes and tackles around our box because a more potent strike-force would have punished us badly today.

However a win's a win and so onward to Airdrie next week. I think we'll get get a better measure of how we're likely to progress after this encounter as Airdrie are the only other full time team in our league. And for pity sake please do not give Ian Russell an opportunity to fall over in the box.

I'm bursting for us to play Alloa, then we'll have an idea of how good we are, they're the team most folk are fancying to win the league.

Disagree with you on Nade LF; he held the ball up well and despite his size still has a decent touch and pass on him, he faded in the second half but they missed him after he went off.

We were much better than I expected and long may this form continue.

I'll give you that he held the ball up well (when he managed to stay on his feet anyway) but he didn't do anything to hurt us with it and is too slow to be a threat to us. Our defenders handled him well and made sure he wasn't getting near a shot at our goal. How he gets so many fouls is baffling, goes down easier than Beany.

Thought Morgyn Neill had a good game at RB, he was getting down the wing well and put a few good crosses in.

Good display all round from livi,had a sticky 20 mins at start of 2nd half but once buchs came on then watt we never looked back. More of this please livi !!

Sorry for the late post guys.Now that ive had the chance to digest saturdays performance i have to admit i for one never seen that coming.As has been said already apart from that breif period at the start of the second half i thought the guys put in a hell of a shift to a man.Great to see pitts back to his best,imo he ran the show and it also shows that if Buchs is in the mood he,ll rattle them in at this level.Only thing that worries me is that all to familiar word complacency although i hope the players felt as good as we did on monday morning going into our work places with a smile on our faces for the first time in a long while.We are good enough to be in the top half of the table as saturdays performance showed,its just a pity there were only around 700 there to see it.Cmon West Lothian waken up for gods sake.!!!

Liviforever wrote:I'll give you that he held the ball up well (when he managed to stay on his feet anyway) but he didn't do anything to hurt us with it and is too slow to be a threat to us. Our defenders handled him well and made sure he wasn't getting near a shot at our goal. How he gets so many fouls is baffling, goes down easier than Beany.

Thought Morgyn Neill had a good game at RB, he was getting down the wing well and put a few good crosses in.

We're now in agreement on Nade, our defence dealt with him well but he was still a potential threat. Lithgow bumped him over in the second half very easily and shortly after that he was subbed.

We didn't have a single poor performer on Saturday, but we did have that dodgy spell when they scored and almost equalised but for Kelly's excellent save or two. Interestingly we seemed to regroup after Hoppy was sent to the stand... Coincidence or is Martindale the brains of the management team?

Hopkins may have been in the stand but the young goalie was running up and down with messages to the dugout.

Wasn't at the game but speaking to the folk I normally go with, sounds like I missed a cracking performance from ourselves. Especially pleasing to see Pittman and Buchanan getting on the scoresheet early doors, I think it will do the confidence of both the world of good. Was very important that we hit the ground running with a win here, I noted before the season started that negative results in our opening two games would see an infinite amount of pressure placed on Hopkin before we'd even reached September... We're halfway there, and with a pretty convincing win to boot. Next week will be a tougher test by all accounts and one I really can't wait for.

Bertie Bassett wrote:

Liviforever wrote:I'll give you that he held the ball up well (when he managed to stay on his feet anyway) but he didn't do anything to hurt us with it and is too slow to be a threat to us. Our defenders handled him well and made sure he wasn't getting near a shot at our goal. How he gets so many fouls is baffling, goes down easier than Beany.

Thought Morgyn Neill had a good game at RB, he was getting down the wing well and put a few good crosses in.

We're now in agreement on Nade, our defence dealt with him well but he was still a potential threat. Lithgow bumped him over in the second half very easily and shortly after that he was subbed.

We didn't have a single poor performer on Saturday, but we did have that dodgy spell when they scored and almost equalised but for Kelly's excellent save or two. Interestingly we seemed to regroup after Hoppy was sent to the stand... Coincidence or is Martindale the brains of the management team?

I'm far from a Hopkin fan but I think him bringing on Buchanan did as much as anything to change things around for us and get us back on top, we immediately got further up the pitch and put pressure on them in their own half. Before that we had dropped back into our own half and gave them far too much space to come at our goal.
Mullen scored a goal of the season contender but I still don't like seeing him on his own up front and Buchanan sitting on the bench. Though if we are going 4-5-1 the midfielders must be up supporting Mullen, he collected the ball and had the space to turn and look up, that's when Mullen is at his best, not with his back to a big CB isolated as a lone striker.

Agreed

Well done to Scott Pittman making it into the SPFL's team of the week for his superb performance against Stranraer.

Saturday was possibly his best performance for us; very well deserved