Crusaders v Livi Fri 7.45 ko

I didn't realise they were P/T... I based my guessed assessment of their ability on the fact they are top of their league and Irish sides in European competition usually don't get humiliated.

I didn't see last nights game but IMO that is a good win and no doubt the last gasp winner made it worth the trip or worth watching regardless of what went on before, so we'll done to the team, the fans that were able to travel and to the club for making it viewable for those who could get down last night.

It will be interesting to see how the other Irish and Welsh sides do.

Good win for Ayr last night too. One of my sons lived down there at Uni and as he is down visiting some of his Uni mates, he went to the match with his Ayr supporting pal. He said it was a really good game even at 0-0 and Ayr deserved the win in ET.

This cup is winnable, and despite the inclusion of u-20's and the "foreigners" I'd be more than happy for us to win it.

cptn_hooch wrote:

Liviforever wrote:Mullin is one of our best players, I was bursting to see him get on and he scored within seconds when he finally got put on the pitch, Cadden too was a key player, he put in both crosses for our goals. Great subs to come on for us but they should've both started. What a way to finish the game though, place erupted when Pittman scored in injury time, brilliant to watch.

We're the team to hand out defeats to undefeated teams this season, Alloa, Brechin and now Crusaders, can we get a game against Man City arranged.

Hopkin said after the game that he knew it'd be physical so left the flair players on the bench to make an impact later...I don't know if it was bluffing or a stroke of tactical genius but it worked.


Oh and P.S. Spurs-2 City-0

Yeah I just remembered that after I posted and changed it.

Don't quite see how playing Knox fits in with leaving flair players out because Crues are physical, he's a wee boy. Cadden and Mullin starting would've had this game sewn up by HT, we play physical teams in League One and handle them no problem.

Bertie Bassett wrote:I didn't realise they were P/T... I based my guessed assessment of their ability on the fact they are top of their league and Irish sides in European competition usually don't get humiliated.

I didn't see last nights game but IMO that is a good win and no doubt the last gasp winner made it worth the trip or worth watching regardless of what went on before, so we'll done to the team, the fans that were able to travel and to the club for making it viewable for those who could get down last night.

It will be interesting to see how the other Irish and Welsh sides do.

Good win for Ayr last night too. One of my sons lived down there at Uni and as he is down visiting some of his Uni mates, he went to the match with his Ayr supporting pal. He said it was a really good game even at 0-0 and Ayr deserved the win in ET.

This cup is winnable, and despite the inclusion of u-20's and the "foreigners" I'd be more than happy for us to win it.

Someone on P&B said Crues left some of their best players on the bench, but then again so did we for most of the game. They looked a lot more dangerous in the 2nd haf but I doubt they'd be better than SPFL Championship level.

Thought Maley did well, he made a couple of excellent saves, a few dodgy kicks and a save he spilled gave us a wee scare but over the piece he was good.

Liviforever wrote:

I didn't see last nights game but IMO that is a good win and no doubt the last gasp winner made it worth the trip or worth watching regardless of what went on before, so we'll done to the team, the fans that were able to travel and to the club for making it viewable for those who could get down last

Thought Maley did well, he made a couple of excellent saves, a few dodgy kicks and a save he spilled gave us a wee scare but over the piece he was good.

Yeah he 100% deserved man of the match as without his saves crusaders could and maybe should have scored a few more

Just about recovered from last night,I said pre match that i thought the tie could go all the way but was glad to be proved wrong albeit in such dramatic fashion.Not the best game ive ever seen but at the end of the day the objective was achieved by the lads so well done Livi,Also well done to the club for making it possible for us fortunate ones who managed to see it.Hope the supporters who made the trip managed to get home safely.All in all kudos to all connected with the club for making it a memorable night for all of us.Was great to see the bars rockin again after so many years.Going to take a couple of Paracetomel cause my heads still buzzin.Cheers.

Crusaders 1 Livi 2
Bala Town 2 Alloa 4
Forfar 1 TNS 3

There's a wee pattern of away wins going there.

QoS v Linfield tomorrow

Hibs beaten by the Jack Ross inspired St Midden. So this cup is arguably getting easier to win

Can't see Linfield beating QoS but you never know. Would like them to get through and us to get them or TNS away just for another game to be on the telly, or a home draw against anyone else.

A brilliant night in Belfast - Crusaders fans made us really welcome in their Social Club pre and post-match - a great bunch of guys. Mention should also be given to the moronic Livi 'fan' for trying to get into a fight with a Crusaders fan in the stadium n put a bit of a dampener on a great night - credit to the Livi fans who tried to get the idiot to behave. Hopefully the club know who this apology for a fan is and make arrangements for him to be banned from the vale.

QoS made hard work of it going to ET but they're 2-0 up now and all but through. TNS it is then for us to do our thing and knock out the last outsider.

What a brilliant weekend that was. I was initially quite dubious over the inclusion of the Welsh & NI teams, but certainly I would be in favour of keeping them in and perhaps even expanding it to include their top 4. An excellent trip, something different to what we've experienced in a number of years and hopefully it's an experience the players can draw upon later in the season. Wasn't too keen with the starting eleven and I think that contributed to a poor first half; two sides trying to gain a measure of each other without posing much danger. Game changed completely when Mullin came on, him and Cadden made the desired difference and credit in particular to the latter, some really smart play to lay on the two goals. Credit to the team at the end, too, mental strength looks a lot better than last season given we'd have rolled over and lost it from there.

The scenes at the end though, made the trip totally worthwhile. Great to see the players actually engaging with the fans too, hopefully does wonders for the link between us and them.

Never get tired watching the winning goal and celebrations, brilliant.

Cracking save from Maley off a deflected shot. Two well timed blocks in the box in quick succession at 1-1. Superb composure from Pittman for the winner. Bring on TNS

Wouldn't be surprised to see the TNS game moved for TV but there are a couple of all-2ndtier ties as well... Given the nature of this season's tournament though, surely our game is favourite for coverage?

Just seen on P&B we're in trouble for fielding Lithgow against Crusaders, apparently cup games counted too for his suspension and he shouldn't have played, we could be chucked out of the cup now.

Livingston face cup expulsion after fielding ineligible player

http://stv.tv/sport/football/1369943-livingston-face-cup-expulsion-after-fielding-ineligible-player/

Absolutely farcical.

IMO in this day and age this sort of thing should never happen. When a ban is issued it should state categorically what the player is banned from and this should be communicated to every club involved in those tournaments and to all referees that could be involved.

If the club then attempts to name the banned player in the team, the ref should be able to draw their attention to it and they can then replace him with a sub and be forced to play a man light. The person at the club who attempted to claim the player was eligible should then be summarily dismissed for being incompetent.

Alloa knew the rules, they didn't play Goodwin in their cup game and he was suspended the same weekend as Lithgow, they knew cup games counted. I read on the Alloa thread on P&B that Goodwin was ok to play this weekend as he'd served his suspension, I immediately thought 'oh heck we played Lithgow' but didn't post anything to alert anyone to our blunder, was only a matter of time before someone stuck us in though. Why don't we know the rules, you'd think someone at Livi would've checked to see if it was ok to play him in the cup, a phone call or an email to the SPFL is all it would've taken.

Just hope we don't get a points deduction for this too, you know what the SPFL/SFA are like, they love putting the boot into us and we keep giving them the opportunity to do so.

Did it not used to be that suspensions only applied to the competition in which they were incurred? It also used to be just a one game automatic ban after a red card. They keep changing things. In saying that his ban was described on the SFA website as two first team games so why did none of us fans query it ahead of the game?

Liviforever wrote:Alloa knew the rules, they didn't play Goodwin in their cup game and he was suspended the same weekend as Lithgow, they knew cup games counted. I read on the Alloa thread on P&B that Goodwin was ok to play this weekend as he'd served his suspension, I immediately thought 'oh heck we played Lithgow' but didn't post anything to alert anyone to our blunder, was only a matter of time before someone stuck us in though. Why don't we know the rules, you'd think someone at Livi would've checked to see if it was ok to play him in the cup, a phone call or an email to the SPFL is all it would've taken.

Just hope we don't get a points deduction for this too, you know what the SPFL/SFA are like, they love putting the boot into us and we keep giving them the opportunity to do so.

Not for breaching cup rules surely?. That would be a draconian punishment. A fine, ejection from the tournament and points swiped as well!!!!. We didn't gain an advantage in a league game so sod any points deduction.

What a sickener. It's totally amateur stuff as well, and it's fairly inexcusable. Lithgow is on the list for outstanding suspensions for last weekend, it says clear as day that he was due to be suspended for one first team game immediately. It's on the SFA's website if anyone's interested. I just can't believe someone at Livi has overlooked this, surely it's standard to check this list as force of habit?

I'll be stunned if we're not punted out of this competition, a shame for myself and the other fans who travelled over to Belfast especially, spending a fair bit in doing so.

fanfromday1 wrote:

Liviforever wrote:Alloa knew the rules, they didn't play Goodwin in their cup game and he was suspended the same weekend as Lithgow, they knew cup games counted. I read on the Alloa thread on P&B that Goodwin was ok to play this weekend as he'd served his suspension, I immediately thought 'oh heck we played Lithgow' but didn't post anything to alert anyone to our blunder, was only a matter of time before someone stuck us in though. Why don't we know the rules, you'd think someone at Livi would've checked to see if it was ok to play him in the cup, a phone call or an email to the SPFL is all it would've taken.

Just hope we don't get a points deduction for this too, you know what the SPFL/SFA are like, they love putting the boot into us and we keep giving them the opportunity to do so.

Not for breaching cup rules surely?. That would be a draconian punishment. A fine, ejection from the tournament and points swiped as well!!!!. We didn't gain an advantage in a league game so sod any points deduction.

Yeah but I can't help fear the worst where the  SPFL are concerned, who'd have thought they could demote us down from the 1st div to the 3rd but they did.
Best case scenario would be for us to play the game again, but I think they'll just award the game to Crusaders, hopefully that will be the end of it.

Orco, are you seriously saying us fans should be making sure the club are clued up on the rules?

That's the club's job, the secretary should've been doing it same as Alloa's was, they're PT and we're meant to be FT, yet they're running their club more professionally than ours.
The club said it was only league games for Lithgow's suspension, personally I took their word for it thinking they'd have checked to make sure, sad state of affairs if fans have to check for them, bloody amateurish.

We're presenting our case to the SPFL's hearing on the 24th Oct, but at face value we haven't a leg to stand on, bloody miracle if we manage to pull this off and stay in the cup. Fingers crossed.

Lfl of course it's not the fans' job to check the rules but I sure as heck will from now on. The club is run on a wing and a prayer by volunteers and there is no club secretary listed in the programme. Compared to Livi, Alloa are the professionals when it comes to procedures and governance. When it comes to Livi there is the world as it should be and the world as it is. Was it ever any other way at this club? Frustrating as it is I'm not sure what, if anything , we fans can do about that.

Got to agree with you there, orco. Nothing will ever surprise me about this club. You compare our operation to Alloa's and they are the ones set-up for long-term success. The current model we're running is a very risky one, as goes without saying, in a sense we should be thankful that this blunder's came on the footballing side of things as opposed to off the field, where a similar sort of oversight could result in a missed payment, etc. It also sort of goes back to the discussion that was had when David Martindale's involvement came to the fore; granted, he's a shady guy but surely there's an absolute necessity for a general manager at a football club? No point trying to service a full-time playing squad without the necessary infrastructure behind the scenes, as demonstrated by this episode.

I agree that the club needs to be better clued up on such things but I still say that all parties involved should be told ahead of any match, which players (and any club officials in the case of touch line bans) are eligible for the game.

It's basic admin. For example at my job we subcontract out work to other transport companies; the day before they are due to do any jobs we contact them to make sure they are still on schedule to do them. Similarly all it needs is for someone in the league/FA to go through the list of suspensions and advise the clubs and the players directly on the Monday ahead of the next game which the suspension covers.

We live in a hyper-connected world of instant communication, so it would be a very simple task. The opponents and match officials can also be informed; the latter get a team sheet ahead of the game, if a banned player is included the officials can go to the team concerned and tell them, the club then uses a sub ahead of kick off, can still make 3 subs during the game but has 1 less player to choose from.

This is a poor show from the club if it comes to pass they have dropped the ball on this one.

In their defence in 2016 and the technological age we live in we shouldn't have to rely on someone manually checking suspensions etc. The SPFL should make the technology available via a secure site only accessible by clubs that allows potential team lines to be uploaded or even proposed squads for upcoming games to be uploaded to the SPFL website. The inbuilt checks would then highlight any potentially ineligible players and regulate the process. This takes away human interpretation of rules and ensure they are applied to all professional matches under the jurisdiction of the SPFL.

Then again we are talking Scottish Football where common sense is in short supply and innovation in even shorter supply !!

Anyone know what time we find out about this today?

All I know is it was today.

Can't see any news about the hearing on the SFA or SPFL webstites, nothing on the Livi fc news feeds either. Would be great if we just got a dressing down from them and a wee fine, was quite looking forward to playing TNS to see if we could give them their first defeat this season.