Livi v East Fife

I'd take anything that commentator said with a pinch of salt D, I just found him faf, he was severely in denial with his commentary.

Durnford wrote:

Bertie Bassett wrote:D, East Fife spent most of the first half in our half and a large chunk of it in our box with about 5 corners in quick succession, dominating possession and territory (which they did) doesn't always translate to shots on goal. We were poor in the first half, didn't use the ball well enough when we had it and were much too ponderous... Until the move which brought the goal. So regardless of statistics our goal came against the run of play.

Sorry but we had five shots at goal in the first half compared to East Fife's 3.

Also for the first half we had 54.8% possession compared to East Fife's 45.2%

Yes they had four corners in quick succession but did nothing with them

Before our first goal East Fife had conceded three free kicks in fairly quick succession and had shots on goal from Nicky Cadden and Jackson Longridge.

Not exactly what I would call against the run of play.

I'd love to know who makes up the possession stats cause my neck was sore from looking to my right for most of the first half!

Frankly, a blind man could see that apart from the goal we didn't really threaten their goal. Cadden's free kick was wide and the keeper casually watched it go by, Crighton headed over but it didn't trouble the keeper at all. Apart from the goal I don't recall much else, so I count 3 attempts with 1 on target. I don't recall the keeper making a save, or any goal line clearances, so another couple of attempts may have gone wide but by and large East Fife were compact at the back and untroubled except when we scored. Meanwhile, we had to defend those corners and scramble about in the box. The highlights showed at least 3 attempts by them, ok nothing troubled our keeper either but they were playing better than us and causing us more problems than we were causing them when we broke up the park with some decent passes, good pace & running off the ball, something I and my seating companions had been saying we should be doing for the previous 44 minutes. Second half was better (apart from conceding the goal).

Bertie Bassett wrote:I'd love to know who makes up the possession stats cause my neck was sore from looking to my right for most of the first half!

Frankly, a blind man could see that apart from the goal we didn't really threaten their goal. Cadden's free kick was wide and the keeper casually watched it go by, Crighton headed over but it didn't trouble the keeper at all. Apart from the goal I don't recall much else, so I count 3 attempts with 1 on target. I don't recall the keeper making a save, or any goal line clearances, so another couple of attempts may have gone wide but by and large East Fife were compact at the back and untroubled except when we scored. Meanwhile, we had to defend those corners and scramble about in the box. The highlights showed at least 3 attempts by them, ok nothing troubled our keeper either but they were playing better than us and causing us more problems than we were causing them when we broke up the park with some decent passes, good pace & running off the ball, something I and my seating companions had been saying we should be doing for the previous 44 minutes. Second half was better (apart from conceding the goal).

Think we'll have to agree to disagree on this but for the record East Fife were far better in their first game and Insall virtually never stopped presenting a goal threat.

For me on Saturday they were a shadow of their former selves.

Can't comment on that, wasn't there.

If you read up the thread and the similar one on Lion's Den, you'll see I'm not the only person who saw it as I describe it.

Didn't see us scrambling about, never got worried at all by any of the EF moves. A few wild shots that didn't trouble Kelly at all doesn't make them any more of a threat than us in that first half. Def wouldn't say we scored against the run of play, play was going back and forth without either of us causing the keepers much problem, till we scored on the brink of HT with the best move of the game.


Our goal reminded me of the good old days with Keaghan and wee Bobby breaking up the pitch and scoring goals, only we had about 5 players involved in it, Cadden and Miller doing the most work and Buchanan finishing it off.

I agree it was the best move of the game.

But we had to defend corner after corner after corner, for about 5 minutes we couldn't get out of our box never mind our half! That wasn't because they were playing it in and we were heading it straight out. I'm not saying it was desperation defending but we were under pressure and thankfully managed to cope with it. We had the odd foray into their half but we were fed up straining to see the action, the folk in section A weren't having that problem. We kept saying they need to get it down and pass it because Mullen was substantially shorter than his defender and he wasn't getting any joy against him with the high balls. When we did do that, lo and behold we scored.

Play wasn't going back and forth any further than the sixth of the pitch that made up East Fife's half of the middle third at our end but was getting into our box at the other end.

I agree that East Fife weren't incisive enough themselves, that's why they didn't score. They should have done a million times better than they did when they had that 3 on 1 break up field but I was convinced that if we could score in the first half we'd win fairly comfortably but we had to defend better than they had to because mostly all they had to do was beat Mullen in the air.

But they continued to make it tricky by scoring themselves and even trying to get back into it when down to 10 and even 9 men. We were very wasteful with our own chances against 9 men.

Durnford wrote:Before our first goal East Fife had conceded three free kicks in fairly quick succession and had shots on goal from Nicky Cadden and Jackson Longridge.

Not exactly what I would call against the run of play.

Neither of which troubled the keeper. Our goal was on the counter attack. Not surprising given that we spent most of the half defending, despite your stats. Troy's summation of the game earlier is pretty accurate if you ask me.

Just realised that the sending off of the East Fife goalie has weakened their side for their next game - Alloa. Bummer!

Looking for Airdrie to get at least a draw against them next Saturday.