Crusaders v Livi Fri 7.45 ko

£4,000 fine and ordered to replay the tie. 1st November in Belfast, 745pm kickoff.

The decision summed up Lexi-style: "What a load of fuck."

Ken, 4k fine and another 4k expenses for another trip over and back, so 8k out of pocket, which is about the prize money for winning this game.

Do you think we can play Lithgow now he's served a two match suspension (Peterheid & Albion Rovers) ?

Hope we pump them again, players should be all the more determined to win this game to give the SPFL a big GIRFUY.

This is purely a conspiracy but it was a sub-committee of the SPFL who made the decision. To me, that sounds like a group of chairmen from the diddy seaside teams who don't want the Northern Irish, Welsh and U-20 teams in this competition. So rather than let them through, let us play the game to knock them out again.

Purely a conspiracy but if I was on Pie & Bovril, I'd love to see how others would react to that.

There is no guarantee we will beat them again tho is there? If there was a conspiracy in our favour then we would have been fined and allowed to play in the next round on the basis that there is no time to fit in a replay.

Don't think Crusaders want to play this game again, 3 of their players were injured in the last game and now things are a bit tighter in their league and they have 3 other cups of their own to play in too.

They are 4 points clear at the top, by my reckoning they are in a better league position as I'm sure they were only ahead on GD last time.

TNS are not just unbeaten, they have won all 12 league games so far

Both are in shite leagues, esp TNS. My point still stands, Crusaders don't really want this game again, they've enough on their plate with domestic games. Bet they regret entering it now. Quite funny that Hopkin kept our flair players out to start with because Crusaders are a big physical team and 3 of their players got injured playing us.

Tempted to head over for this, anyone else considering it?

Not sure anyone would be that keen to play TNS.

With all due respect to The New Saints playing a game on a Sunday, televised but no share of the revenue, is a guaranteed all time low gate (you'd have to be some dedicated fan to make the 700 mile round trip on a Sunday when its already being shown live on S4C). Wouldn't be surprised if the losses for having to play this game far outstripped the fine or indeed the prize money for getting through to the next round. Maybe we could play it on the field turf if we get through?

Realistically it would have been better for all parties is the tie had simply been awarded to Crusaders and they could then properly prepared to play TNS. To be perfectly honest it would probably make for more interesting television spectacle anyway.

The bizarre thing is that we actually played a weakened team against the Crusaders last time with the reserve goalkeeper and another fringe player starting the game but couldn't leave Lithgow out for Neill. As far as I recall there's not limit on the number of first team players that have to be played in the Iron Bru cup; when we played Hearts a couple of seasons back they only played, I think, two first team players?

I know a lot of our support (myself included) were upset that the original tie what held on a Friday night due to an agreement with the SPFL and some pay per view channel and now its being held on a Tuesday night. As far as I could see there is no way of getting back from Belfast on the same night

The £4,000 fine is a sore one but frankly the management have no-one to blame but themselves.

Pretty bonkers that we're going back over there to replay this match. I'm sure the club would've preferred getting booted, seeing as the whole thing has more than likely cost us in excess of £10k, I reckon.

A quick look at the Crusaders FB shows that they're not too happy about it, either; think they'd rather concentrate on domestic competitions without this distraction. Curious to see, too, whether or not we play a "weakened" side given we'll have had a tough game away to Brechin the Saturday before and a home match against East Fife coming up. Hope it's live on telly though, would be good to watch the match (again).

Was a decent idea to start with having these teams in it but now it is just farcical, with neither Livi or Crusaders particularly thrilled about playing this game again. Would've made more sense for them to either award the game to Crusaders as a punishment for us playing Lithgow, or let the result stand and fine us more money (8K).
But the decision they've taken puts everyone out.

Us financially and fixture congestion wise.

Crusaders fixture congestion wise and prob a loss financially with them having to split a shite gate with us too.

TNS too, being held in limbo not know where they'll be playing to make travel arrangements.

And the actual Irn Bru competition being made to look a joke with the faffing around length of time they took to get this sorted and inconveniencing so many teams in the Process.

Oh and Stenny and East Stirlingshire both not knowing if their games would be played or not, Stenny was meant to be playing us but then the game was P-P due to our game with TNS, then it could've been back on again if we got booted out, which meant East Stirling who still play at Stenny's ground were able to play with the Stenny v Livi game being P-P, but again didn't know if it would be on or off due to this SPFL decision taking so long.

Kicked out or an 8K fine, think either one would've been better that this balls up of a decision, and we wouldn't have been any worse off financially with either one. Only positive for us is if we can win it again and go on to get to the semi final and draw a bigger team which will attract a decent crowd.

Liviforever wrote:Both are in shite leagues, esp TNS. My point still stands, Crusaders don't really want this game again, they've enough on their plate with domestic games. Bet they regret entering it now. Quite funny that Hopkin kept our flair players out to start with because Crusaders are a big physical team and 3 of their players got injured playing us.

And ours is a world class league right enough

I wasn't arguing against your point, just your "facts"

Better league than theirs anyway, TNS wouldn't be undefeated playing in our 3rd tier.

My facts are sound, they have played a game more than Linfield and are only 2 points clear, and have 3 other cup games to play as well as the Irn bru cup. They are PT and can't afford any injuries and we gave them 3 the last time we played.

Not sure what to make of all of this to be honest.As it seems that niether team particuilarly wants to play this maybe unfortunate as it sounds would have been better to just give TNS a bye into the next round.Not wishing to ruffle any feathers of course and yes i genuinly feel sorry for those out of pocket after this fiasco.would doubt that this replay will be on any tv channel as the novelty factor has probably worn off by now,and in any case couldnt see the club forking out the way they did first time to screen it even if it was streamed.They certainly wouldnt get the crowd we had that night in the bars.Sorry to be so negative about this im just fed up hearing about the whole bloody shambles.The sooner its over the better IMO!!!

Liviforever wrote:Better league than theirs anyway, TNS wouldn't be undefeated playing in our 3rd tier.

My facts are sound, they have played a game more than Linfield and are only 2 points clear, and have 3 other cup games to play as well as the Irn bru cup. They are PT and can't afford any injuries and we gave them 3 the last time we played.

I think you'll find they have a 4 point lead and both Crusaders and Linfield have played 12 games; which is what it was when I posted my reply.

Never seen any Welsh league games so cannot comment on its standard.

Just booked the ferry for this.. driving a few of us over, then last ferry back on Tuesday night (so hope it doesn't go to penalties). Wonder how many fans we'll have over!

Could've swore they had played a game more when I checked it after reading a Crusaders fan posting on P&B saying it was tight and they had domestic cup games etc etc.

Anyway, their fans aren't too keen on this being played again either and are worried if they get injuries again. Think they have Linfield on Sat too, same as us with a 1st v 2nd game before we play them.

Predictions for this game then, folks? Pretty difficult to say how we'll line-up, despite the mixed nature of our starting XI in the first game. I'm guessing guys like Watt and Carrick will be getting a sizeable chunk of game time, here.

Fingers crossed for a 3-1 Livi win, FG 21 mins.

The game that no one wants.... Revenge for Crusaders and back to earth for us.

Cru 2 Liv 1

FG 37 min

I'd suggest we're going to win this 2 nil but the first goal not happening until the 55th minute

Actually with both sides likely to play weakened teams who can really tell? Just think our weakened team are likely to be stronger.

Full strength Livi would walk this but as Afro said it is a bit of an unpredictable one with Hopkin likely to play a few fringe players in our starting 11. Crusaders may well be the same and both of us fielding 4 or 5 reserves.

Total shot in the dark as we don't know if we'll field our best players so a conservative 2-1 Livi win, fg 43 mins.

1-1, FG 62 mins.

Livi to win on pens.

Crusaders apparently playing their young players: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37824021

Wouldn't be surprised if that just means first team with a few young players in there too.

I'll change my prediction anyway 2-1 Livi, FG 24 mins.

Just want this out of the way, don't care what team they field we just need to do a job and beat them and get back to league business against East Fife.