Brechin v Livi

Although their defence is pretty solid they don't sit in against teams and will leave enough room for us to get at their goal, so expecting a tight game but us to come out with another 2-1 win against them.

2-1 Livi, fg 37 mins.

Draw written all over this one....

Brechin 1 Livi 1
F G 22 mins

2-1 Livi, FG 18 mins

Got a good feeling about this one now, think we will even win it with a couple of goals to spare now but i'll stick with my original prediction. Not going to Brechin so another good omen, as I didn't go to the colts game, or Peterheid and Crusaders away and we won all of them.

Interesting.... 3:44am and you get a good feeling about Livi playing Brechin.... What were you up to to bring that on??

3-2 Livi. FG 13 mins.

The Lions can put a massive phsycological marker down in this league with a favourable result for us tommorow.Having said that Brechin are not top for nothing but i believe if we are at our best theres no reason why we cant bring back the 3 points to West lothian.Wont be easy but i reckon if we score first the lads will relax and stamp their authority all over this mob. Over to you Livi.Do it!!!

2-1 Livi, FG 51 mins.

Buchanan & Longridge with a goal each in 3 minute spell 2-0 after 69 mins... come on!!!!

I love it when they prove me wrong, only 20 mins to do just that.

Liviforever wrote:Got a good feeling about this one now, think we will even win it with a couple of goals to spare now but i'll stick with my original prediction. Not going to Brechin so another good omen, as I didn't go to the colts game, or Peterheid and Crusaders away and we won all of them.

Love it when they prove me right.

Had me worried for a while though, seemed we were getting a lot of close things but just couldn't get a goal, last ditch defending by Brechin and hitting the bar etc, longer that went on you just thought Brechin would sneak one at the death to do a Dick Turpin on us.

Byrne makes it 3-0!!!

Twitter feed on OCS makes it sound like we ripped them apart today, great result and doubly good when coupled with Albion taking a point from Alloa

As i said pre match we we could do a hell of a lot phycoligy wise on the rest ofthis league if we got a favourable result in this match and by god did the Lions deliver.Magnificiant.Well done to Hoppy and the lads and well done to the hardy bunch of supporters who made the trip up north to wittness this defining result.Its there for the taking if we want it.Once again over to to Livi.!!!

Yeah saw that when I was reading through it, looked like 3-0 flattered them and could easily have been 5 or 6 nil. De Vita and Mullen having a few close efforts and Lithgow hitting the bar. BBC stats have us having 15 shots to Brechin's 1 and 7 on target for Livi with 10 corners.

Went well for us in other games too with Alloa drawing with Albion Rovers.

First clean sheet for us too.

We're TOP OF THE LEAGUE AND YOU'RE NO.

Their goalie kept them in it till we scored. He had a great game. Also had one kicked off the line by their defender. We may have a couple of knocks to deal with. Brechin are quite physical without actually being dirty.

Fairly comfortable and deserved win in the end for us today. For going into the game as the league leaders, Brechin were very average but there wasn't much difference between the two teams in the first half. Second half went in our favour when we actually started using De Vita and Cadden more effectively on the wings and Pittman and Bryne controlled the middle of the park.

Our game plan seems to have changed recently: before we would try to blitz teams away in the first half but now we try to settle more in the first half then go for it in the second which seems to be working.

Unsure if Hopkin purposely meant it but the substitutions he made today suggests he's going to make changes for the Crusaders game on Tuesday. Putting Carrick on when we're winning 2-0 when Buchanan didn't look tired could mean Carrick will start or he may just be resting Buchanan for the game ahead. I wouldn't be surprised if we see the like of Watt, Byrne, Sinclair and Carrick start.

Wouldn't be averse to those 4 starting, and resting up some players to come on from the bench 2nd half if we needed them. Maybe starting Mullin too. Maybe rest up Mullen & Buch's and start Rafa & Carrick up front?

What a difference a couple of weeks makes to the place, we were all so down when the news of the SPFL hearing came in on Fri, then the defeat to Rovers, then we get a lift from signing Rafa, win against Alloa and Brechin, get a replay against Crusaders instead of being punted out the cup, and to top it off we're top of the league.
A win on Tues and everything would be back on track in the bru cup for our quarter final against TNS, mon the Lions.

Buzzing off that win today. Never mind the fact we went away to the league leaders and blitzed them 3-0, most important for me was the fact we kept a clean sheet. Could see last week against Alloa how gutted Halkett, Crighton and Kelly were in particular about losing the late goal. Solid stuff today throughout the team, was fairly even first half with ourselves probably shading it in terms of pressure applied to the opposition.

Second half was a different story, I'm glad that we bided our time in breaking them down and didn't panic, although I have to say that Buchanan's goal is one of the worst I've seen - I'm not sure Brechin will want to see it again, a complete catastrophe from the POV. Special mention to Longridge, who has been very mediocre since returning from injury, but looked very assured today and capped it off with a great goal. All in all, a brilliant result and encouraging to see so many of the players look on top form.

Vital that we get a win next Saturday against East Fife to maintain this momentum, hopefully we get a win over in Belfast midweek to give ourselves a further boost after this one!

Liviforever wrote:Wouldn't be averse to those 4 starting, and resting up some players to come on from the bench 2nd half if we needed them. Maybe starting Mullin too. Maybe rest up Mullen & Buch's and start Rafa & Carrick up front?

What a difference a couple of weeks makes to the place, we were all so down when the news of the SPFL hearing came in on Fri, then the defeat to Rovers, then we get a lift from signing Rafa, win against Alloa and Brechin, get a replay against Crusaders instead of being punted out the cup, and to top it off we're top of the league.
A win on Tues and everything would be back on track in the bru cup for our quarter final against TNS, mon the Lions.

Surely since Rafa wasn't registered at the time of the original tie then he'd be ineligible? Someone should really remind Livi of that fact ahead of Tuesday!

Afro wrote:

Liviforever wrote:Wouldn't be averse to those 4 starting, and resting up some players to come on from the bench 2nd half if we needed them. Maybe starting Mullin too. Maybe rest up Mullen & Buch's and start Rafa & Carrick up front?

What a difference a couple of weeks makes to the place, we were all so down when the news of the SPFL hearing came in on Fri, then the defeat to Rovers, then we get a lift from signing Rafa, win against Alloa and Brechin, get a replay against Crusaders instead of being punted out the cup, and to top it off we're top of the league.
A win on Tues and everything would be back on track in the bru cup for our quarter final against TNS, mon the Lions.

Surely since Rafa wasn't registered at the time of the original tie then he'd be ineligible? Someone should really remind Livi of that fact ahead of Tuesday!

Feck knows how that one works, would've thought it goes with when the replay is due to be played is what matters, not when the original tie was played. Lithgow wasn't meant to play in the original tie but he's served his suspension and is ok to play now, so would think De Vita is ok to play too. But yeah, we better bloody check to make sure before the game.

Do we know for certain that Lithgow IS clear to play? If he is it makes a mockery of the need to replay the tie.

It is hilariously farcical but he's served his suspension and has played in our last two games against Alloa and Brechin, so isn't suspended anymore.

Didn't see anything about Lithgow being banned from playing in the Irn Bru cup when the SPFL issued our punishment, just said we had to play Crusaders again and a 4K fine. BTW I read Callum Carson's twitter saying he heard it was a suspended fine.

Dods post match interview is def tinted specs time, fecker has been sniffing the glue when he was watching the game if he thinks Brechin were anything but 2nd best for the whole game. you'd think listening to him it was only set pieces we were dangerous and the break we got for Buchanan's goal was all that was between the teams.

Cracking tempo from our players, battled hard to dominate the play and from what you can see from those highlights it really could've been about 8-0 and it wouldn't have flattered us.

Think you're a wee bit unfair on him there LF. He's got to try and put a positive spin on a defeat and he admits "it just didn't happen for us today" and "they (Livi) are strong going forward".

He's also correct in that we got a wee bit lucky for the opener, the keeper either slipping or his feet getting stuck if it was muddy in his area. Buchanan's shot was saveable or clearanle if a defender had been alert as it literally trundled in.

8-0? Never likely from what I saw, 3-0 was about right, maybe 4-0 would have been the right sort of margin. That said, given it was the home team's TV footage, it was clear that we were the better side all round, there was very little in the way of City attacks on show, so definitely the better side won.

3-0 is about right, come on Bertie, we should've been 3-0 up in the first half, I think you've put his Brechin tinted specs on. Those are Brechin's highlights and they barely had anything to put on them showing Brechin attacking our goal, it could actually have been more than 8 but I just took genuine goal bound shots that could easily have gone in and ones where we opened them up and should've scored. Their keeper made some great stops and to suggest his slip gave us a lucky goal is why we won is ridiculous, it was no more than we deserved after all the times they were under pressure and holding on for dear life.

Then to say he was disappointed that their heads went down after our 2nd when they've come back at teams and got something from games is even more deluded. Yeah maybe they did against lesser teams but we had them dominated all game, even after we went 3 up Mullen lifted a wee lob over their defenders for Rafa to have a shot from 6 yards that almost made it 4.

It certainly didn't give us a lift after our 2nd like he suggested either, from what I saw of their highlights we never stopped making goal scoring chances all game and I didn't see any sign of us suddenly upping our game after scoring a 2nd goal.