Airdrie v Livi

No but we should've been Orco, agree with Bertie, even before we scored Buchanan was clear through on goal and should've scored. We were cruising at 2-0 and had several chances to make it 3 but then got caught with a sucker punch with the boot up the pitch when Crighton was still up the pitch. Then we scored to go 3-1 up and had several chances to make it 4-1 but again made it difficult for ourselves being pegged back to 3-2. Even at 3-2 we had 2 great chances where we had men in the box to square it to for a tap in but decided to go it alone and lost the ball, and then finally squared it the third time for Mullin to score.

4-2 flattered Airdrie, should easily have been 4-1 or 5-1 and it wouldn't have flattered us. Airdrie passed it about well without actually threatening us in the final third, we moved the ball quicker and were more direct and cut them open enough times to get at least 5 goals and have an easy afternoon.

Yes it was nervy at 3-2 but it really shouldn't have been. Keep playing like this and we'll win most games, but could do with killing teams off when we're on top and 2 goals up.

It took us 11 games to score this many goals in the league last season, and we only had 7 points after the 11th game too. It also wasn't till our 12th league game we got our first home win, neither wonder our att has dropped, hopefully folk will see our last two results and decide to come back down for a look to see how we're playing and we bang in another 4 or 5 goals against Stenny next week.

Looked around 100 plus Livi fans there yesterday

orco wrote:

Bertie Bassett wrote:

Disagree with you, we made hard work of it by gifting them 2 goals, but most of the time we played them off the park. We ripped them apart 2 or 3 times each time we had a 2 goal advantage but failed to score, a goal on any one of those occasions and we'd have been out of sight.

I take you were quite relaxed then watching that last 25 minutes at 3-2

For most of it I was actually, the only time I felt a bit nervous was when the ball went fizzing across the face of the goal, Beany missed it and it went behind the other guy on the left. Most of the time we were comfortable and should have had them killed off long before we did. I was more worried about the pitch causing us problems than Airdrie. I feared a silly bounce or bobble causing problems that Airdrie were unable to create for themselves.

ianlivi wrote:Looked around 100 plus Livi fans there yesterday

Seemed like more to me, I didn't see how much space we had or get a view of the fans but there seemed to be quite a few folk to me.

For all the passing play Airdrie had they never really threatened us save for a spell after their second goal. Quite ironic that their goals came from a punt up the park and a set piece, then. Have to say it was disappointing that Halkett was weak IMO for the first goal, and had a lack of awareness for their second. Special mention to Crighton for kidding on to be our #9 for their first goal, too. Feels weird saying it, but we've conceded two goals again without looking too soft defensively for the most part. I think we'll continue to improve as the season goes on, I would say it does help massively compared to last season that we have two fairly decent holding midfielders in Miller and Byrne - I don't think the former is Championship quality but time will tell, if we continue to play like this for most of the season.

By and large a solid performance and pleasing to see us score a barrowload of goals again. Still don't think we're at 100%, but it is encouraging that we've went away to a team that I think will be challenging at the top of the league for the most part and scored four. A few other points:

- Immensely pleasing to see Scotty P thriving in a more attacking role. He is wasted when playing in the two of a 4-2-3-1 or whatever it was for the most of last season. Ideally, he could've had two goals yesterday to back up his two from last week - I think it will be a big season from him.

- Mullen's hold up is becoming better and better as weeks go by, and as EL pointed out, it is bizarre the amount of abuse he gets from some fans. Aye, he's particularly frustrating when he goes down like a bag of potatoes most of the time, but I wish someone would tell him to stop being so orientated on drawing fouls - if he stays on his feet like he did at the end, he can carve out chances excellently.

- For a player of Liam Buchanan's experience, he is such a frustrating player. I think it was with about 5 minutes to go when we were on the breakaway, he just suffered what can only be described as a total loss of composure. Feet went and he lost the ball so easily, for a player of such experience he really should be doing better for the most part in those situations. That said, an excellent piece of awareness to ghost in at the back post for his goal - looks like something that's been worked on in training.

- Nicky Cadden seemed anonymous for the most part save for a few nice turns and incisive passes; he's really not looked the same player since the injury to his ankle. I thought at the time Hopkin had rushed him back too quickly, and it sort of seems like it. His form's deserted him to a degree, and I wouldn't be averse to seeing Liam Watt come into the team and having Mullin out wide cutting in, with Pittman out right. On paper, next week is a game we should be winning comfortably so I suppose the temptation is there to let Cadden get a good run out and get some form back.

Decent crowd of over 1000 as well, wish we could get something approaching that most weeks.

Think us winning games will get crowds back up again, I won't be able to get to a game until September, so inevitably we'll stop winning around then.

Highlights from Airdrie looks like there's quite a bit more than 100 Livi fans there too: http://airdriefc.com/diamondstv/16/08/13

Definitely more than 100 if that total figure is correct.

Don't what game the Airdrie coach was watching if he thinks they were on top for most of the match, must have been in a parallel universe.

Just shows what Mullen can do when he stays on his feet, did really well to hold off his man and play in Mullin for our 4th goal, needs to do that more often and stop going for the theatrical fouls. Despite his Iain Russell impersonations he's looking pretty good in games, him and Pittman are looking like they'll rattle in a fair few goals between them.

Halkett was honking for both Airdrie's goals, he's normally solid in defence but didn't cover himself in glory on Saturday.

No credit mentioned to Craig Halkett who came back in after suspension and was solid for 90 mins, I'll continue to bang the drum but he is our best defender and should be playing alongside Crighton. Six competitive games in and I already know that Lithgow is not a good enough defender for this level, there's a bombscare in him waiting to explode.

Big test next week against Stenhousemuir at home when we're overwhelming favourites. That'll show early in the season if we've got the professionalism to get through these sort of games.

Lithgow has been calmness personified every time I've seen him. LF is spot on that Halkett messed up for both Airdrie goals but they were his only mistakes.

If that had been Neill doing that last week he'd have been getting pelters, Halkett was far from solid for 90 mins when he was shrugged off the ball for the first when he had a chance to boot the ball away and was slow getting to their 2nd.

Must've been why I got confused thinking it was Buchanan setting up our 4th, didn't think it could be Mullen staying on his feet and holding off a challenge.

Aye the Airdrie coach has his head up his arse if he thinks Airdrie dominated that game, it was like the bad old days under Hughes, tippy tappy football not going anywhere doesn't equate to dominating the game. We pounced on their defensive mistake when they were trying to pass the ball out from defence quite a few times too.


I had my doubts about Hopkin being the right man for the job this season and still not completely agreeing about his team selection but have to admit that so far he's proving me wrong. I like the way he's setting us up to play direct attacking football, akin to how we played just before Hughes took charge. Quick passing with focus on scoring goals is just as attractive as making 20 passes, and the end product is going in the back of the net.

Yes; I too doubted he was the right man but you can't argue with what we are seeing (on the whole) at the moment; it is early days mind you and LC is right about the Stenhousemuir game being an important test as that is the sort of game we traditionally ease off in & end up with egg on our faces.

You're right in your appraisal of Halkett being our best defender LiviCub, but I have to disagree that he was solid on Saturday. Suspect for both goals, I'll give him leeway given how well he's played in the past and that he was missing last week, hopefully we get a clean sheet against Stenny to give all of the defence a boost.

LIVItv has them done now, good looking highlights. Glad they've stopped playing the music when the game starts, found it annoying last season.



That was some run by Mullen for our 4th goal, he starts off just outside our 18 yard box and is well behind play when he makes up about 40 yards to catch up with Mullen for his pass to knock it into the net.