Albion Rovers v Livi

I see Alloa's game is off with Stranraer playing a cup game, so good chance for us to go 6 points clear of them and be on the same games played without having to wait till our game in hand against Stenny.

Wonder if Rovers will sit in as much with them playing at home, in any case I think Hopkin needs to show a bit more patience with staying 4-4-2 because as soon as he switches to 3-5-2 taking off Longridge we're left vulnerable to the counter attack and invariably concede another goal.

Not heard anything about Miller's injury and if he'll be fit for this game but I think Byrne did well with Pittman against Airdrie in the CM allowing Cadden and Mullin to get down the wings, i'd like to see us sticking with that for this game too, I think we need width against teams like Rovers and get in behind their defence to open them up.

For me i'd go:


.....................................Kelly


Halkett...............Crighton..........Lithgow..................Longridge



Mullin.................Byrne..................Pittman...............Cadden


........................Mullen................Buchanan



Subs to use later: De Vita, Watt, & Carrick (if we're a couple of goals up)

Great result for Rovers against QoS in their cup game, played their usual soaking up the pressure and hitting them with sucker punches, can't see them being any different with us, even with them playing at home they play the same way.
Hopefully Hopkin will set us out with 4 at the back and we're a bit more clinical with any chances we get, if we score first I can see us winning by 2 or 3 goals, wont be easy but I think we will win this.

3-1 Livi, fg 22 mins. Mon the Lions.

We really don't have the best of records at Cliftonhill, my best memories of the ground are Ewan Moyes (mind him?) scoring an OG when we'd just been pumped down to the 3rd Division in 2009... Rovers have come a long way since then, and I can't say I'm too surprised they beat Queens given the way they set up against us so effectively. I envisage more of the same here, and I think it'll end honours even.

1-1, FG 30 mins.

Continuing to be cold but dry. On that basis i'm going for a hard fought Livi win.

2 - 1 to Livingston
FG 65 min

Got a funny feeling that Albion are going to be a thorn in our side this season.

AR 2 Liv 1

FG 24 mins

Afro wrote:We really don't have the best of records at Cliftonhill, my best memories of the ground are Ewan Moyes (mind him?) scoring an OG when we'd just been pumped down to the 3rd Division in 2009... Rovers have come a long way since then, and I can't say I'm too surprised they beat Queens given the way they set up against us so effectively. I envisage more of the same here, and I think it'll end honours even.

1-1, FG 30 mins.

Was that the long punt up the pitch from their keeper when the wind was howling against us and Moyes got his head to it and looped it over our keeper's head into our goal, I was there and vaguely remember it.

The Danny Mullen penalty against them is another fond memory, he hit it 20 foot over the bar and right out of their ground.

2-1 Livi, FG 31 mins.

Liviforever wrote:

Afro wrote:We really don't have the best of records at Cliftonhill, my best memories of the ground are Ewan Moyes (mind him?) scoring an OG when we'd just been pumped down to the 3rd Division in 2009... Rovers have come a long way since then, and I can't say I'm too surprised they beat Queens given the way they set up against us so effectively. I envisage more of the same here, and I think it'll end honours even.

1-1, FG 30 mins.

Was that the long punt up the pitch from their keeper when the wind was howling against us and Moyes got his head to it and looped it over our keeper's head into our goal, I was there and vaguely remember it.

The Danny Mullen penalty against them is another fond memory, he hit it 20 foot over the bar and right out of their ground.

Was is also the day Bobby Barr ran us ragged? Then we signed him a couple of months later.

3-0 Livingston. FG 41 mins.

Reckon it will be a tough shift for the lads tommorow against Rovers unless they still have a hangover from their midweek exploits.Last time against them was a shocker from us and we simply cant afford to put a similar performance against them.Think if we score first we could possibly cruise this but if not we could struggle.A narrow victory would do me here but it wont be easy against a team who will definatly have their tails up.3 points required Livi .Do it!!!

Talk about grinding out a result, doesn't get more grinding than that, great 3 points though and Brechin lost today so we've opened up a gap on them and Alloa. Still got a game in hand over Airdrie too and could move right away from them if we win against Stenny and then beat them at home on the 17th.

Was worried when I saw Mullen was injured and not playing, then saw Buchanan being subbed for Neill and thought we were settling for the draw, dunno if Hoppy is a genius for his substitutions or just got lucky but we won so I don't really care.

Albion deserved that for bringing absolutely nothing in that second half.

It's games like that that could get football banned. Dire to watch in a stadium that makes Cappielow feel like the Bernabeu.
We literally watched an endless supply of long balls up to Buchanan who was marshalled by a couple of defenders a foot taller than him.
Maybe it was the pitch or maybe it was the style of football Albion play, but we just couldn't get going. However we took three points, something we have often failed to do in games where we played ok. I'll take that and hopefully a return to something better next week at Stranraer.

How did the penalty come about? There were so many missed pens in the last 15 mins today I was relieved to here we'd scored.

Funniest has to be Higginbotham missing 2 in the space of 30 seconds at home for Dunfermline at home to Ayr.

Bertie Bassett wrote:How did the penalty come about? There were so many missed pens in the last 15 mins today I was relieved to here we'd scored.

Funniest has to be Higginbotham missing 2 in the space of 30 seconds at home for Dunfermline at home to Ayr.

Dunfermline really are shit at taking penalties, they missed 3 in the one game against Utd earlier in the season too.

Carrick won us the pen, our penalty taker had just been subbed off for Neill too so thank goodness Cadden took it and scored. That's his first league goal too, his other goals were in cup comps.

Hoping Mullen is back for next week's game, really need both him and Buchanan up front, we play so much better with the two of them pressuring defenders and backing one another up.

I didn't see the penalty. That was one of the bits of the pitch that was obscured for me. Apparently it was of the soft variety. The Rovers fans were certainly raging. Cadden grabbed the ball straight away so he was obviously confident about scoring. I wasn't so sure but he put it away nicely.

I read on the OCS that it was soft and was hoping for someone who witnessed it to confirm... All I would say is that it is about time we benefitted from such a decision.

Important win with Airdrie rolling on in the league after we sent them packing in the cup...hopefully we can put them in their place again at our place.

Apparently Lowland League leaders East Kilbride gave Stranraer a tough game yesterday so here's hoping we can sort them (Stranraer) out as well.

We've had blatant pushes/barges on our players ignored both inside and outside the box, perfectly good goals not given because officials gave them wrongly offside, opposition teams getting penalties when their players dived or hit the ball off our player's face, so I don't really care how soft it was, not sure what that means either tbh, doesn't really matter how hard you get hit/touched, you can go down with the slightest of touches if it knocks you off balance.

As i had suggested in my post on Friday a narrow win would do me after yesterdays game at a difficult venue.Albeit the lateness of our winner kind of reminded me of not to long ago when we were so vulnerable to late goals against us that it was pleasing to actually get a wee rub of the green regardless as to wether it was a dubious decision or not.Maybe performances have to take a back seat at this time of the year on some of these pitches as long as we keep getting the points one way or another.Tough games coming up but im sure if we apply ourselves properly i see no reason as to why we cant have a pleasant festive period and into the newyear on a high.Well done Livi and keep it up.!

Absolutely, I am hoping that it was a soft pen so that we got some luck for a change.

LF, while I agree the slightest touch administered at the appropriate moment can impede there are also occasions when the touch doesn't affect anything - that is what I would refer to as a soft pen... Or a handball when the player has no clue where the ball is and it hits his hand. I have seen a number of those over the years in various games. The most memorable was when Aberdeen launched the ball into the Hearts box, Hearts left back Brian Whittaker had his back to the ball which bounced and hit him. The ref gave nothing but Willie Miller pointed to the penalty spot and the ref looked at him and did likewise. This was, if I remember correctly, the first league match to be shown live.