Morton v Livi

No midweek game this week so we have no excuse for not coming out and having plenty energy in midfield, lets just get stuck in about them and win this game. Can't believe i'll head through to this, hate their fecking ground with restricted view and cramped seats but i'll be going there twice in the space of a fortnight hoping to see us winning again. Mon the Lions.

Hard fought 2-1 Livi win, fg 8 mins.

Ridiculous that we'll have played them & St Midden twice each before the end of August; such is the stupidity of the Scottish football hierarchy.

Morton will be fired up for this given our win there last week; can't see us repeating the trick. Losing would be very bad news, I understand we have been unfortunate in our games but the bottom line is we have 2 points out of 9 & losing on Saturday will make it 2 from 12 & even a draw would only be 3 from 12 & frankly that is relegation results (notice I said results not form)

What will happen is anyone's guess but I think we'll find ourselves on the wrong end of the scoreline.

Mor 2 Liv 1 fg 24 mins

A Morton poster on P&B said they played 6 games before winning their first league game last season, and St Mirren were about 15 games in before winning their first game, neither were relegated and Morton did pretty well after that.
QoS won 5 and drew 1 in their first 6 games but finished 9 points below Morton. Too much is being made of what happens in these opening games, nothing is settled this early. Falkirk are below us but they'll prob still finish in the top 4.

Fans who purchase tickets prior to 1pm on a matchday will enjoy a freeze upon last year’s pay-at-the-gate prices and these will be priced at:
Adults – £18
Concessions – £15
Children aged 12-16 – £5
Children under 12^ – Free

And the award for taking the piss out of the away fans goes to........

Adult tickets purchased between 1pm and 3pm on a matchday are subject to an additional £2 charge and this will be invested directly into our own youth development programme.

I reckon we should get a special mention in the MDM, something along the lines of, 'cheers Livi fans, for your generous, erm, voluntary, well not really given a choice, enforced surcharge/donation, to our youth development programme. That was very nice of you.'

Seriously though, that's ridiculous, they are just taking the piss out of away fans. Fair enough they want fans to purchase tickets early so there aren't big queues to jam up their ticketing system on match days, but the home fans have all week to get a ticket, away fans wont be going through 2 and a half hours before ko though and are just being ripped off here, and charged £20 entry, £2 more than the home fans.

Liviforever wrote:A Morton poster on P&B said they played 6 games before winning their first league game last season, and St Mirren were about 15 games in before winning their first game, neither were relegated and Morton did pretty well after that.
QoS won 5 and drew 1 in their first 6 games but finished 9 points below Morton. Too much is being made of what happens in these opening games, nothing is settled this early. Falkirk are below us but they'll prob still finish in the top 4.

You are right in saying nothing is settled this early & that Falkirk will prob still finish in the top 4.
Last season Saints pulled off their own great escape, they looked down before Christmas but Ross sorted them out just in time. When we pulled off our great escape (which went closer to the wire than Saints did) & won the Petrofac (bettering Saints making a losing appearance in the final) we looked like we would kick on and be a threat the following season but we went backwards & suffered from a terrible set of results in the first 9 games in which our form wasn't bad but our results were hopeless. That blew any confidence we had & form suffered. So while it is too early to know where we will finish, it's never too early to take heed of the warning signs, sort the issues now & save yourself the hardship later.

I don't think there are issues* or warning signs though, we've beaten Championship teams in cup games and were cheated out of 3 points by a player diving and a refereeing making the wrong call on the penalty, I really don't think we need to worry/panic.

*Obv there are things to work on from one game to the next but that's normal for every team, generally though we're playing well and results will come. 1 loss in 18 games, albeit 15 of them weren't in the league this season, suggests we don't have issues.

If we're still looking for our first league win after the first quarter then i'll get worried. Tbh though i'm the one with high expectations (5th and challenging for 4th) this season and you reckon 7th place would be about where we'll finish, so this conversation should be the other way around.

Regarding the Dunfermline pen... Obviously I wasn't there having been kidnapped by lumberjacks before being rescued by Mounties (Note to Durnford... See I can make a post without saying Canada... Oops); but it has been suggested to me that they should have had a pen a few seconds/mins before Cardle dived so arguably although 2 wrongs don't make a right, justice was done. In any case I would say we failed to beat them as we were unable to convert our own pen.

Our penalty record in league matches is rank just now, that needs worked on.

Against Brechin we were 2 up against a PT side that we owned last season & failed to win, that's not good enough & needs worked on.

Against Saints, we hadn't a clue how to break them down & lost 2 goals to 10 men, that's not good enough & needs worked on.

I have no complaints against the cup form but that swagger needs to be on full show in league games.

Liviforever wrote:I don't think there are issues* or warning signs though, we've beaten Championship teams in cup games and were cheated out of 3 points by a player diving and a refereeing making the wrong call on the penalty, I really don't think we need to worry/panic.

*Obv there are things to work on from one game to the next but that's normal for every team, generally though we're playing well and results will come. 1 loss in 18 games, albeit 15 of them weren't in the league this season, suggests we don't have issues.

If we're still looking for our first league win after the first quarter then i'll get worried. Tbh though i'm the one with high expectations (5th and challenging for 4th) this season and you reckon 7th place would be about where we'll finish, so this conversation should be the other way around.

As a matter of interest who are all these panicking people?

I don't think I've seen any posts that could really be described as panic/sack the board/tar and feather the manager march on the club with burning pitchforks?

NOTE - if you set alight to a pitchfork it pretty soon becomes too hot to handle.

Bertie Bassett wrote:Regarding the Dunfermline pen... Obviously I wasn't there having been kidnapped by lumberjacks before being rescued by Mounties (Note to Durnford... See I can make a post without saying Canada... Oops); but it has been suggested to me that they should have had a pen a few seconds/mins before Cardle dived so arguably although 2 wrongs don't make a right, justice was done. In any case I would say we failed to beat them as we were unable to convert our own pen.

Our penalty record in league matches is rank just now, that needs worked on.

Against Brechin we were 2 up against a PT side that we owned last season & failed to win, that's not good enough & needs worked on.

Against Saints, we hadn't a clue how to break them down & lost 2 goals to 10 men, that's not good enough & needs worked on.

I have no complaints against the cup form but that swagger needs to be on full show in league games.

Bertie - I am not fixated by Canada and really don't deserve this Torent 'O abuse.

In future please try and Mont-real arguments and justifications

Incidentally I got a rescue cat from the commandos; trouble is he's a really noisy eater - he's a SAS Kat Chewin.

Sorry....

Durnford wrote:

Liviforever wrote:I don't think there are issues* or warning signs though, we've beaten Championship teams in cup games and were cheated out of 3 points by a player diving and a refereeing making the wrong call on the penalty, I really don't think we need to worry/panic.

*Obv there are things to work on from one game to the next but that's normal for every team, generally though we're playing well and results will come. 1 loss in 18 games, albeit 15 of them weren't in the league this season, suggests we don't have issues.

If we're still looking for our first league win after the first quarter then i'll get worried. Tbh though i'm the one with high expectations (5th and challenging for 4th) this season and you reckon 7th place would be about where we'll finish, so this conversation should be the other way around.

As a matter of interest who are all these panicking people?

I don't think I've seen any posts that could really be described as panic/sack the board/tar and feather the manager march on the club with burning pitchforks?

NOTE - if you set alight to a pitchfork it pretty soon becomes too hot to handle.

I've read a few posts both on here and from Livi fans on P&B that are getting a bit twitchy about not having won a league game yet, as I said earlier, Morton took 6 games to record their first win last season and QoS had 5 wins and a draw in their first 6 games, yet Morton finished above them. Really means nothing where teams are in the league or how well/poor their results have been thus far.

Bertie Bassett wrote:Regarding the Dunfermline pen... Obviously I wasn't there having been kidnapped by lumberjacks before being rescued by Mounties (Note to Durnford... See I can make a post without saying Canada... Oops); but it has been suggested to me that they should have had a pen a few seconds/mins before Cardle dived so arguably although 2 wrongs don't make a right, justice was done. In any case I would say we failed to beat them as we were unable to convert our own pen.

Our penalty record in league matches is rank just now, that needs worked on.

Against Brechin we were 2 up against a PT side that we owned last season & failed to win, that's not good enough & needs worked on.

Against Saints, we hadn't a clue how to break them down & lost 2 goals to 10 men, that's not good enough & needs worked on.

I have no complaints against the cup form but that swagger needs to be on full show in league games.

I suggested a reason for the league results being slightly lower than the cup ones but you more or less dismissed it. Playing 2 games a week even this early in the season can have an affect on your players performances, just being that 5 or 10% below your normal level can be the difference between a win and a draw, or even a defeat. We seemed to be all guns blazing and full of zip on a Tues night against Falkirk and Morton and then 'leggy' (as Neil Alexander put it in an interview) on a Sat against Brechin and St Mirren.

Our cup success has been down to how well our midfield has done in closing players down and dominating play, they all looked a wee bit off their game after midweek exertions. We'll see if not having a midweek game before the Morton game will show a noticeable difference in having zip. We didn't play badly against St Mirren but that aggression and energy wasn't there, but it was against Morton midweek.

Jim Duffy isn't a mug and is actually one of the more likeable managers out there, I'm sure he'll be having them raring to go against us after the cup defeat last week. On the face of it a draw wouldn't be a bad result but I agree, we're needing to transfer our cup form to the league and get a win before it becomes a problem. Probably won't come here, though.

Morton 2-0 Livingston, FG 39 mins. Predictor League will be back beginning with this game!

Liviforever wrote:

Bertie Bassett wrote:Regarding the Dunfermline pen... Obviously I wasn't there having been kidnapped by lumberjacks before being rescued by Mounties (Note to Durnford... See I can make a post without saying Canada... Oops); but it has been suggested to me that they should have had a pen a few seconds/mins before Cardle dived so arguably although 2 wrongs don't make a right, justice was done. In any case I would say we failed to beat them as we were unable to convert our own pen.

Our penalty record in league matches is rank just now, that needs worked on.

Against Brechin we were 2 up against a PT side that we owned last season & failed to win, that's not good enough & needs worked on.

Against Saints, we hadn't a clue how to break them down & lost 2 goals to 10 men, that's not good enough & needs worked on.

I have no complaints against the cup form but that swagger needs to be on full show in league games.

I suggested a reason for the league results being slightly lower than the cup ones but you more or less dismissed it. Playing 2 games a week even this early in the season can have an affect on your players performances, just being that 5 or 10% below your normal level can be the difference between a win and a draw, or even a defeat. We seemed to be all guns blazing and full of zip on a Tues night against Falkirk and Morton and then 'leggy' (as Neil Alexander put it in an interview) on a Sat against Brechin and St Mirren.

Our cup success has been down to how well our midfield has done in closing players down and dominating play, they all looked a wee bit off their game after midweek exertions. We'll see if not having a midweek game before the Morton game will show a noticeable difference in having zip. We didn't play badly against St Mirren but that aggression and energy wasn't there, but it was against Morton midweek.

I dismissed it because, funnily enough, we are not the only side that has been playing twice a week. Professional players should not be tired this early in the season, end of.

Durnford wrote:

Bertie Bassett wrote:Regarding the Dunfermline pen... Obviously I wasn't there having been kidnapped by lumberjacks before being rescued by Mounties (Note to Durnford... See I can make a post without saying Canada... Oops); but it has been suggested to me that they should have had a pen a few seconds/mins before Cardle dived so arguably although 2 wrongs don't make a right, justice was done. In any case I would say we failed to beat them as we were unable to convert our own pen.

Our penalty record in league matches is rank just now, that needs worked on.

Against Brechin we were 2 up against a PT side that we owned last season & failed to win, that's not good enough & needs worked on.

Against Saints, we hadn't a clue how to break them down & lost 2 goals to 10 men, that's not good enough & needs worked on.

I have no complaints against the cup form but that swagger needs to be on full show in league games.

Bertie - I am not fixated by Canada and really don't deserve this Torent 'O abuse.

In future please try and Mont-real arguments and justifications

Incidentally I got a rescue cat from the commandos; trouble is he's a really noisy eater - he's a SAS Kat Chewin.

Sorry....

I almost missed your Toronto reference

Bertie Bassett wrote:Regarding the Dunfermline pen... Obviously I wasn't there having been kidnapped by lumberjacks before being rescued by Mounties (Note to Durnford... See I can make a post without saying Canada... Oops); but it has been suggested to me that they should have had a pen a few seconds/mins before Cardle dived so arguably although 2 wrongs don't make a right, justice was done. In any case I would say we failed to beat them as we were unable to convert our own pen.

Our penalty record in league matches is rank just now, that needs worked on.

Against Brechin we were 2 up against a PT side that we owned last season & failed to win, that's not good enough & needs worked on.

Against Saints, we hadn't a clue how to break them down & lost 2 goals to 10 men, that's not good enough & needs worked on.

I have no complaints against the cup form but that swagger needs to be on full show in league games.

The penalty claim a few minutes before was dodgy too. Dunfermline players go down very easily. The large crowd they brought roared every time and influenced the referee, as they do. We should have won that game. Even Pars fans felt lucky to get a point.

orco wrote:

Bertie Bassett wrote:Regarding the Dunfermline pen... Obviously I wasn't there having been kidnapped by lumberjacks before being rescued by Mounties (Note to Durnford... See I can make a post without saying Canada... Oops); but it has been suggested to me that they should have had a pen a few seconds/mins before Cardle dived so arguably although 2 wrongs don't make a right, justice was done. In any case I would say we failed to beat them as we were unable to convert our own pen.

Our penalty record in league matches is rank just now, that needs worked on.

Against Brechin we were 2 up against a PT side that we owned last season & failed to win, that's not good enough & needs worked on.

Against Saints, we hadn't a clue how to break them down & lost 2 goals to 10 men, that's not good enough & needs worked on.

I have no complaints against the cup form but that swagger needs to be on full show in league games.

The penalty claim a few minutes before was dodgy too. Dunfermline players go down very easily. The large crowd they brought roared every time and influenced the referee, as they do. We should have won that game. Even Pars fans felt lucky to get a point.

Bertie wasn't there but he knows best Orco. Where's that banging head smiley?

Bertie Bassett wrote:

Liviforever wrote:

Bertie Bassett wrote:Regarding the Dunfermline pen... Obviously I wasn't there having been kidnapped by lumberjacks before being rescued by Mounties (Note to Durnford... See I can make a post without saying Canada... Oops); but it has been suggested to me that they should have had a pen a few seconds/mins before Cardle dived so arguably although 2 wrongs don't make a right, justice was done. In any case I would say we failed to beat them as we were unable to convert our own pen.

Our penalty record in league matches is rank just now, that needs worked on.

Against Brechin we were 2 up against a PT side that we owned last season & failed to win, that's not good enough & needs worked on.

Against Saints, we hadn't a clue how to break them down & lost 2 goals to 10 men, that's not good enough & needs worked on.

I have no complaints against the cup form but that swagger needs to be on full show in league games.

I suggested a reason for the league results being slightly lower than the cup ones but you more or less dismissed it. Playing 2 games a week even this early in the season can have an affect on your players performances, just being that 5 or 10% below your normal level can be the difference between a win and a draw, or even a defeat. We seemed to be all guns blazing and full of zip on a Tues night against Falkirk and Morton and then 'leggy' (as Neil Alexander put it in an interview) on a Sat against Brechin and St Mirren.

Our cup success has been down to how well our midfield has done in closing players down and dominating play, they all looked a wee bit off their game after midweek exertions. We'll see if not having a midweek game before the Morton game will show a noticeable difference in having zip. We didn't play badly against St Mirren but that aggression and energy wasn't there, but it was against Morton midweek.

I dismissed it because, funnily enough, we are not the only side that has been playing twice a week. Professional players should not be tired this early in the season, end of.

Gimme strength. I didn't say they were tired, I said their level of performance wasn't as good as it was on Tues after playing a hard game where they put a lot into it to win, esp the Falkirk one that went to ET. That isn't just about fitness, you can run about for 90 minutes playing football 3 times a week but you wont play to the same level in every game but there's more chance of you hitting a higher level only playing once a week. Plus it isn't just running about, you get kicked and barged into and play with bruises, that can have an affect too (and dinny fecking tell me it's too early in the season for knocks and bruises to affect you).

Oh and yeah, 1 defeat in 18 games (9 played this season), it def needs worked on. It just isn't good enough.

Morton 2. Livingston 3. FG 8 mins.

Liviforever wrote:

orco wrote:

Bertie Bassett wrote:Regarding the Dunfermline pen... Obviously I wasn't there having been kidnapped by lumberjacks before being rescued by Mounties (Note to Durnford... See I can make a post without saying Canada... Oops); but it has been suggested to me that they should have had a pen a few seconds/mins before Cardle dived so arguably although 2 wrongs don't make a right, justice was done. In any case I would say we failed to beat them as we were unable to convert our own pen.

Our penalty record in league matches is rank just now, that needs worked on.

Against Brechin we were 2 up against a PT side that we owned last season & failed to win, that's not good enough & needs worked on.

Against Saints, we hadn't a clue how to break them down & lost 2 goals to 10 men, that's not good enough & needs worked on.

I have no complaints against the cup form but that swagger needs to be on full show in league games.

The penalty claim a few minutes before was dodgy too. Dunfermline players go down very easily. The large crowd they brought roared every time and influenced the referee, as they do. We should have won that game. Even Pars fans felt lucky to get a point.

Bertie wasn't there but he knows best Orco. Where's that banging head smiley?

Actually if you read what I posted I'm reporting what I have heard and I did so to get an informed response as per Orco's reply... But glad to see you are recognising that I know best

Regardless, missing the pen had as much or more to do with the result than conceding from a dodgy pen.

Any ways back to the Morton game.I reckon anything other than a defeat here would be a bonus for us though im still bewildered by that second half horror show last week.Hopefully our strikers can waken up and take any chances that arise for us and also keep it tight at the back.Without erring on the side of caution i think the first goal if any will be crucial here hense my reluctance to put the hex on Livi.Maybe just Maybe.

2-0 Morton. FG 24 mins.

Liviforever wrote:

Bertie Bassett wrote:

Liviforever wrote:

Bertie Bassett wrote:Regarding the Dunfermline pen... Obviously I wasn't there having been kidnapped by lumberjacks before being rescued by Mounties (Note to Durnford... See I can make a post without saying Canada... Oops); but it has been suggested to me that they should have had a pen a few seconds/mins before Cardle dived so arguably although 2 wrongs don't make a right, justice was done. In any case I would say we failed to beat them as we were unable to convert our own pen.

Our penalty record in league matches is rank just now, that needs worked on.

Against Brechin we were 2 up against a PT side that we owned last season & failed to win, that's not good enough & needs worked on.

Against Saints, we hadn't a clue how to break them down & lost 2 goals to 10 men, that's not good enough & needs worked on.

I have no complaints against the cup form but that swagger needs to be on full show in league games.

I suggested a reason for the league results being slightly lower than the cup ones but you more or less dismissed it. Playing 2 games a week even this early in the season can have an affect on your players performances, just being that 5 or 10% below your normal level can be the difference between a win and a draw, or even a defeat. We seemed to be all guns blazing and full of zip on a Tues night against Falkirk and Morton and then 'leggy' (as Neil Alexander put it in an interview) on a Sat against Brechin and St Mirren.

Our cup success has been down to how well our midfield has done in closing players down and dominating play, they all looked a wee bit off their game after midweek exertions. We'll see if not having a midweek game before the Morton game will show a noticeable difference in having zip. We didn't play badly against St Mirren but that aggression and energy wasn't there, but it was against Morton midweek.

I dismissed it because, funnily enough, we are not the only side that has been playing twice a week. Professional players should not be tired this early in the season, end of.

Gimme strength. I didn't say they were tired, I said their level of performance wasn't as good as it was on Tues after playing a hard game where they put a lot into it to win, esp the Falkirk one that went to ET. That isn't just about fitness, you can run about for 90 minutes playing football 3 times a week but you wont play to the same level in every game but there's more chance of you hitting a higher level only playing once a week. Plus it isn't just running about, you get kicked and barged into and play with bruises, that can have an affect too (and dinny fecking tell me it's too early in the season for knocks and bruises to affect you).

Oh and yeah, 1 defeat in 18 games (9 played this season), it def needs worked on. It just isn't good enough.

I notice you ignore the fact that we are not the only team that's been playing twice a week...

Pros usually say they prefer playing to training, so two games a week should be easy.

In my other favourite sport (ice hockey) they play 3, 4 & sometimes even 5 times a week. Admittedly they are not on ice for an entire match but that means they have to be fit enough to withstand high intensity action followed by sitting on the bench & then going back into high intensity mode again within a few minutes and no stretching/warm up in between.

Of course performance levels vary the same is true in any walk of life but you quoted Alexander as saying they were "leggy" for the Brechin game... That's just another word for tired & it shouldn't be the case this early in the season. Furthermore Hoppy hasn't been playing the same XI every game, so again they shouldn't be "leggy".

1 defeat in 18 games but no wins in 3 league games is the important statistic as far as the league is concerned which is what I'm talking about.

Approaching half time and our game is the only scoreless match in the division.

Reading the Twitter feed on the OCS it seems like we are having the best of it; hopefully we can turn this apparent dominance into goals.

The only team below us at kick off picking up points at the moment is ICT & they will go above us if we fail to win.

HT
Brechin 0 ICT 2
Dumbarton 0 Dunf Ath 2
Falkirk 0 QoS 2
Morton 0 Livi 0
Saints 1 United 0

60 mins and Danny Mullen puts us 1 up!!!!

C'mon Livi!!

Not long to go now... Twitter feed indicating that Morton are pushing hard for an equaliser. Big Dec has been praised for a couple of outstanding tackles.

C'mon lads, stand firm