Livi v QoS

Our toughest League game yet, QoS have made an impressive start and Dobbie is the best striker in the league, so it will be a hard shift for our defenders keeping him out. A draw would be a good result here and if we could sneak a win it would be fantastic, can't see it though. If we concede more than one goal I doubt we'll get anything. Pains me to be so negative and go for a draw here, 1-1 with the first goal in 37 mins.

We're going to bounce back with a 2-1 win
FG 39 minutes

Liviforever wrote:Our toughest League game yet, QoS have made an impressive start and Dobbie is the best striker in the league, so it will be a hard shift for our defenders keeping him out. A draw would be a good result here and if we could sneak a win it would be fantastic, can't see it though. If we concede more than one goal I doubt we'll get anything. Pains me to be so negative and go for a draw here, 1-1 with the first goal in 37 mins.

Who are you & what have you done with Liviforever? We want proof of life before we pay any ransom!

I agree that this likely to be our toughest test so far, possibly even more so than the Thistle cup tie.
1 day less recovery time than QoS too as we have just come through 120 mins & pens not to mention two long drives to & from Oswestry, with the downside of returning on the wrong end of the scoreline; compared to their stroll in Berwick.

I have a feeling QoS will be one of the main challengers for the top 4 this season, so rather unsurprisingly I am predicting a gallant defeat.

Liv 1 QoS 2
FG 31 mins

1-1, FG 24 mins

Bertie Bassett wrote:

Liviforever wrote:Our toughest League game yet, QoS have made an impressive start and Dobbie is the best striker in the league, so it will be a hard shift for our defenders keeping him out. A draw would be a good result here and if we could sneak a win it would be fantastic, can't see it though. If we concede more than one goal I doubt we'll get anything. Pains me to be so negative and go for a draw here, 1-1 with the first goal in 37 mins.

Who are you & what have you done with Liviforever? We want proof of life before we pay any ransom!

I agree that this likely to be our toughest test so far, possibly even more so than the Thistle cup tie.
1 day less recovery time than QoS too as we have just come through 120 mins & pens not to mention two long drives to & from Oswestry, with the downside of returning on the wrong end of the scoreline; compared to their stroll in Berwick.

I have a feeling QoS will be one of the main challengers for the top 4 this season, so rather unsurprisingly I am predicting a gallant defeat.

Liv 1 QoS 2
FG 31 mins

It'll be a good test for us, we comfortably dealt with Dunfermline and were by far the better team in that game, since then they've gone on a winning run and are top of the league, so we're more than capable of getting something from this game. We'll have to be on our game though and make sure we close them down around the box and not give Dobbie a sniff of a shot on goal.

It may well suit us to have an attacking team coming at us too, we only really struggled when St Mirren went down to 10 men and sat in crowding their box making it difficult to get any shots on their goal, when it's an open game we've done well. I'm talking myself around here.

Queens are flying and I would happily take a draw, all things considered. I expected them to be jobbing it about in the lower reaches of mid table, but it looks like they may surprise a few this season. I think any team in the division would be doing well if they had a player like Dobbie rattling them in, though.

1-1, FG 34 mins.

Still early days Afro, they got off to a flyer last season too, 16 points from their first 6 games, then stuttered with a couple of draws and a string of defeats. I think you'll get a better idea by January of where teams will be.

Ah, there you are LF; only surprise is you haven't changed your prediction yet

Aye a defeat to us here could be the start of them going down the slippery slope. Nah i'll stick to the draw, though i'm starting to think we can win it.

1-1. FG 33 mins.

Tough Tough game for the Lions tommorow i reckon.Especially as Queens have just anounced the signing of James Mcfadden to their ranksHe may be getting on a bit but i think he still posseses that wee bit of qualitity needed to win games especially at this level.Bound to give them a boost and with Dobbie on fire at the moment our defence is going to have to be at the top of their game to get something here.Still we have players that can cause them problems as well and i really hope that Hoppy goes with two up front to give us a decent chane in this one.Anything other than a defeat i suspect would do most of us though a share of the spoils may have to suffice here.Cmon the Lions Do it!!!

A rollercoaster of a emotions today, felt we were well worth our lead at HT, and should have had another penalty earlier when Mullen was fouled to block his shot. Well put away by Josh Mullin, I think there was a collective sigh from the Livi stand when Danny left it for someone else to take.

2nd half was more even but Queens hadn't had a shot at our goal and it looked pretty comfortable for us to see it out, but we got caught out on the left wing (again) and allowed Stirling to cut across our 18 yard line until he got a gap to shoot, and invited the shot really. Well struck but I felt we should've stopped him shooting.
Their 2nd was a real scunner, sun got in Gallagher's eyes, he put his hand u to shield his eye but the ball bounced over his head and Lyle ran onto it and dinked it over Alexander's head into the net. They were clinical with their limited chances and a body blow for us being 2-1 down. I thought we were going to go away with a deflating defeat after having been the better team for most of the match, so what a relief to get level with Mackin prodding it into the net after a goal mouth scramble finally falling for us.

Relieved to have got a point and although I thought we should've had all 3, I suppose the draw was fair enough with us going 2-1 behind.

From what I've seen so far we have nothing to fear in this league, no reason why we shouldn't be competing for a top 4 spot.

Pittman's best game for a long time and Byrne was pretty good as well. Also Longridge was turning James McFadden in and out for fun.

Sorry for Gallagher who otherwise had a pretty strong game.

Was surprised about the substitution of Todorov for Mackin; prior to that we were well in control and Todorov was causing them some real problems; Mackin, his goal aside, simply doesn't have the pace at this level. I appreciate that QoS bringing on Lyle and Stirling turned out to be a bit of a game changer but it did certainly unsettle us.

Looking forward to Orco's thoughts on the referee's performance.

The fecker got card happy for Livi players, only one he got right was Byrne's when he took one for the team to stop them breaking on us. Mullen was fouled, got sod all for the umpteenth time and after complaining turned and chased after their player, timed his tackle superbly to take the ball and got a card for his trouble. Ref was desperate to book him, as soon as Mullen started chasing the boy the ref had his hand on his card.

I thought a draw was about right. I didn't think Mullen was fouled for an earlier pen , evidenced by his half hearted appeal. The actual pen was a stonewaller and Josh took it well.

Although we were fairly comfy at 1-0, it's never enough unless you defend superbly, we were doing that OK until the triple sub, all 3 had an impact, particularly rather goal scorers who both scored superbly but we should have defended both much better than we did; for a spell it looked like it would be them adding to their lead but well done to the lads for battling back and grabbing an equaliser.

The clearest booking of the day was Kyle's foul on Longridge but Kyle walked away & the ref didn't even have a word with him. IMO the ref was largely woeful but had no direct influence on the result.

Our biggest failing was not pressurising their keeper enough. He kicked poorly under pressure and handled poorly under pressure but we didn't put him under pressure often enough.

He had a direct influence not giving us the pen before the one he did give us, both were pens. The boy slid in and got Mullen's foot as he tried to shoot, didn't touch the ball so all he did was block Mullen's shot with his leg, pen for me.

Need to take more shots at goal instead of trying to play/pass it into the net all the time. And need to start taking all 3 pts when we're ahead and dominating play, that's 3 games now we've got draws from the jaws of a victory, and even against St Mirren we were well ahead up till HT. We'll finish comfortably 5th or 6th but if we want to get higher we need to start taking all 3 pts in these type of games.

Liviforever wrote:Looking forward to Orco's thoughts on the referee's performance.

The fecker got card happy for Livi players, only one he got right was Byrne's when he took one for the team to stop them breaking on us. Mullen was fouled, got sod all for the umpteenth time and after complaining turned and chased after their player, timed his tackle superbly to take the ball and got a card for his trouble. Ref was desperate to book him, as soon as Mullen started chasing the boy the ref had his hand on his card.

Normal refereeing service resumed following Euan Anderson's competent display at Morton.

We hadn't had Steven McLean for the last two seasons but I've watched him on the tele and always though he was decent. Not today. He and the home stand linesman gave us precious little. It probably killed him to give us the penalty but even he couldn't deny that it was a stonewaller.
He seemed eager to give the Livi guys cards yet reluctant to book QoS. The incident with Mullen, as described by Liviforever, was shocking and there were many other fouls on our guys allowed yet free kicks given time and again to Queens often for less.

While none of his poorer decisions directly impacted the score, refereeing like that can frustrate players and affect the performance. It led to Danny having to be subbed for his own good. That said he needs to stop the petulance and learn to rise above it because you won't change a ref's mind.

I wasn't too disappointed in the draw but with a wee bit luck we could once again have taken 3 points. Queens have a wealth of good strikers and the goals they scored were excellent.

So up to Caley next week. Unfortunately I will be missing my first game of the season but I'll be there in spirit and willing them on.

Yep would agree with you Orco.I always thought Steven Mclean was one of our better referees but along with the standside linesman he had an absolute howler of a game.Also would agree that Danny has to stop spitting out the dummy when things arent going his way.You could hear the thoughts of the home support quite audibly when he was subbed.To the game itself,points dropped imo after largely dominating for most periods of the game.Turning point for me was he took off Toddy who was still causing them problems.Looked like he had a wee limp aswell so probably picked up a knock.As isaid on Friday i thought it would be a share of the points yesterday but i reckon we deserved all 3.Still another point on the board which bodes well when you consider the other scores in the division yesterday.Think big Hartsons got his work cut out but you never know.

Liviforever wrote:He had a direct influence not giving us the pen before the one he did give us, both were pens. The boy slid in and got Mullen's foot as he tried to shoot, didn't touch the ball so all he did was block Mullen's shot with his leg, pen for me.

Need to take more shots at goal instead of trying to play/pass it into the net all the time. And need to start taking all 3 pts when we're ahead and dominating play, that's 3 games now we've got draws from the jaws of a victory, and even against St Mirren we were well ahead up till HT. We'll finish comfortably 5th or 6th but if we want to get higher we need to start taking all 3 pts in these type of games.

From my seat the first incident wasn't a pen, they both slid in to reach the ball and neither made sufficient contact with the ball or each other; there may have been a coming together but there was no foul & with Mullen the only player from Livi claiming a pen and doing so half-heartedly at best, I think my view of it was correct.

Completely agree with the opening sentence of your second paragraph; but given we had to battle back to get the draw yesterday you can't claim we drew the game from the jaws of victory. Queens deserve credit for upping the tempo when they made their triple sub and causing us problems. Both of their goals were excellent finishes, albeit we should have defended them both a lot better than we did. We also deserve credit for battling back to salvage the draw.

What was good to see was Jacko upping his game after taking the kick from Kyle. Some of his attacking play after that was a joy to watch but there was one run when I wanted him to shoot but the ball seemed to get held up & when he knocked it again it forced him wide.

Aye well we'll just have to disagree on that Bertie, Mullen didn't make contact with the ball because their player slid in and stopped him by hitting his foot, he'd have had to have gotten the ball first for that not to be a pen but he didn't get anywhere near the ball.

We snatched a draw from the jaws of victory because we threw away a goal lead and were cruising the game. Yes they scored but they were criminal mistakess by us and that was the only 2 shots they had on our goal, it really felt gutting getting only a draw, but also a bit relieved at not losing, can't really explain it but that's how I felt.



Hoppy said in a post match interview that he'd told our players to show Stirling down the line and not let him cut inside to have a shot, Mullin did exactly what he was told not to do, and him, Pittman and Jacobs all stood back and allowed him to have a pop at goal.

A bit of a calamity for Dec but it looked like he lost the ball with the sun blinding him, or maybe it was Lyle's teeth, two cracking finishes for their goals but still annoying to concede 2 goals in a game we dominated.

Cracking penalty from Mullin, he has to be the designated pen taker now. I slag off Mackin for his lack of pace and mobility but he's our top goal scorer with 4 goals and he saved me from being totally fecked off all weekend with his equaliser. Was bad enough drawing but if we'd lost i'd have been murder to live with for a few days.

If the first incident had been a pen I guarantee you Danny Mullen would have been on his feet chasing the ref; just like he was every time he WAS fouled. He even stopped playing despite no whistle and despite still having the ball on one occasion allowing the QoS player to knick it off him.

Mullin did well to get back to hold Stirling up but then let him inside as you said; Dec definitely lost it in the sun but could have dealt better with Lyle who simply bullied him. Yes we had dominated the game but that changed when QoS made their subs. They began moving the ball much quicker causing us to defend more desperately.

Like I said we'll have to disagree, I aint changing my mind i know what I saw.

Yeah 10 mins out of 80 Queens had the better of us, that scunners me that they got 2 goals with their only shots on target all game, and shots that shouldn't have happened. We really should've won the game same as we did against Morton, they didn't offer anymore of a threat than Quitongo with his lightning pace, in fact i'd say he was more of a handful than any Queens player was.

It's all very well being scunnered that they scored with those two shots but that's the difference having quality in the striking department makes. We just didn't replace Buchanan. Danny on his day is decent and I like Carrick's work rate. Todorov has height and strength but he has still to show he has the composure needed when chances are presented. I'm not even going to bother rating Mackin!

Yep I acknowledged they were good goals and very clinical, but still very much preventable.

Not much you can do if a cap has been set on wages and we can't attract a quality striker though, we tried to get Andy Ryan but Dunfermline out bid us. If we had managed to keep Buchanan we'd have been in with a great chance of a top 4 place, and even competing for promotion. Isn't much between us and any of he top teams but they're all scoring lots of goals and we aren't, and that is what will cost us when we're drawing games and not winning them.

But hey, consolidating our place in the Championship is our goal this season and we're looking pretty good for doing so. As fans though we want to do more than just stay up. Even the ones that say they're happy with 8th place will be frustrated seeing us narrowly lose, or drawing games instead of winning them.

Yeh I'm not complaining. We have to work within our budget and survival will do me. I'm still hoping one of the young guys out on loan will turn out to be a decent striker.