Livi v Utd

Obv transfers onto the pitch, their players were getting away with foul after foul without getting booked, some of the tackles by Flood and Briels were ridiculous, coming through the back of our players and using their elbows too.

Their fans saying their players have no fight and are powder puff isn't strictly true, they just don't channel it in the proper way and use their aggression to win balls fairly, they're undisciplined and not very well organised, that's down to McKinnon.

Well done Toddy, in the SPFL team of the week.

Actually, I think his assessment of the second half isn't too bad. United were much better in the second than they were in the first & MacDonald should have scored to equalise but dragged his shot wide. They didn't threaten Alexander because we defended well but I kept expecting MacDonald to go down in the box & get a soft pen. I thought our second came at just the right time to prevent them getting up a real head of steam. And then we were comfortable again.

I disagree with him that our goals were counter attacks though. The first was a quickly taken free kick if I'm not mistaken which was a superb long pass to Mullen. The second was a very decent build up. We may have broken up there attempt at getting forward but that doesn't constitute a counter attack, they had more players back than we had forward.

His claim that they were dominant over the whole match is however laughable. We were the better team over the 90 minutes by some distance.

That McDonald chance was the only time in the whole game I was worried, but that doesn't constitute dominance. In no way shape or form did they put us under the same pressure Dumbarton did in the 2nd half, his heids wasted. We could easily have won the game 4-0, or 4-1 if they had stuck away their one decent chance, and it wouldn't have flattered us.

Liviforever wrote:Well done Toddy, in the SPFL team of the week.

Not being funny but I'm surprised that Halkett wasn't in there - maybe even Lithgow or is that too greedy?

Liviforever wrote:That McDonald chance was the only time in the whole game I was worried, but that doesn't constitute dominance. In no way shape or form did they put us under the same pressure Dumbarton did in the 2nd half, his heids wasted. We could easily have won the game 4-0, or 4-1 if they had stuck away their one decent chance, and it wouldn't have flattered us.

Agreed; United barely seemed able to string three passes together. The only reason I was worried at 1-0 was in case we succumbed to a sucker punch; dubious penalty etc. I rarely saw them as being able to put the ball into the back of the net in open play.

By contrast each time we went forward they seemed to struggle.

I think that was as dominating a display I've seen us put in at any point this season. I wouldn't say we were fantastic, but we certainly nullified any threat they posed and made them look desperate as the second half went on. Can't recall Alexander having a save to make apart from Mullin's header back to him at pace; United were certainly a disappointment given the expenditure they've made on their squad in comparison with the rest of the teams in this division, but that was absolutely down to the tactics we employed. Midfield was solid again, said when Penrice signed that he needed time to settle but you really wouldn't think this guy was only 18 years old. Disappointing that he'll more than likely head back to Partick in January given the rut they're in, looks a great wee player and adds more energy to the midfield three. Special mentions must go to Mullin, Todorov and Lithgow for their performances IMO - incredible how the three of them have developed since they joined us, the latter in particular looks like he's comfortably been at this level for years.

I'd still happily take 8th this season but given the performances we've put in, and the ease with which we put United away, there's no reason we can't re-focus our aims come Christmas. I sincerely hope this run never ends and we have something to play for come April and May, these players and staff deserve it.

Durnford wrote:

Liviforever wrote:Well done Toddy, in the SPFL team of the week.

Not being funny but I'm surprised that Halkett wasn't in there - maybe even Lithgow or is that too greedy?

Steady, lucky we're getting one player in. Quite funny that Toddy is put up front for about 20 mins and gets in the SPFL team of the week as a striker though. He should be put in as a defender too, wonder if that's even an option, mon SPFL make it happen, next time Toddy plays in 2 positions put him down in both of them.

Liviforever wrote:That McDonald chance was the only time in the whole game I was worried, but that doesn't constitute dominance. In no way shape or form did they put us under the same pressure Dumbarton did in the 2nd half, his heids wasted. We could easily have won the game 4-0, or 4-1 if they had stuck away their one decent chance, and it wouldn't have flattered us.

I don't disagree but they were much more in the game 2nd half than they had been in the 1st & our 2nd goal thankfully killed them off. There was the time Alexander dropped it under no pressure (which may have been in the same passage of play as McD's chance, I can't remember now) but had McD equalised it may well have unfolded differently from that point.

But he is seriously deluded if he thinks they dominated the match.

Durnford wrote:

Not being funny but I'm surprised that Halkett wasn't in there - maybe even Lithgow or is that too greedy?

Pretty sure it's only ever 1 player per team, must be a hard job choosing which Livi player to put in most weeks

Bertie Bassett wrote:

Liviforever wrote:That McDonald chance was the only time in the whole game I was worried, but that doesn't constitute dominance. In no way shape or form did they put us under the same pressure Dumbarton did in the 2nd half, his heids wasted. We could easily have won the game 4-0, or 4-1 if they had stuck away their one decent chance, and it wouldn't have flattered us.

I don't disagree but they were much more in the game 2nd half than they had been in the 1st & our 2nd goal thankfully killed them off. There was the time Alexander dropped it under no pressure (which may have been in the same passage of play as McD's chance, I can't remember now) but had McD equalised it may well have unfolded differently from that point.

But he is seriously deluded if he thinks they dominated the match.

Yeah that was the same one, he kinda punched or flpped at it and the ball landed at McDonald's feet, but he hit it wide of the post, I must admit I breathed a sigh of relief at that one, would've just been like the thing if the jammy burgers scored with their first chance on goal. I still think we'd have won though, we showed character to come back and get the winner after Dumbarton pegged us back and were looking like going on to win, Utd didn't even look anywhere near as good as Dumbarton.

LiviLion wrote:

Durnford wrote:

Not being funny but I'm surprised that Halkett wasn't in there - maybe even Lithgow or is that too greedy?

Pretty sure it's only ever 1 player per team, must be a hard job choosing which Livi player to put in most weeks

Quite happy Halkett isn't being chosen every week, it would alert others to how good he is and we might lose him in January. Not that bothered about adding players if we can hold onto the ones we've got.

The biggest thing for me against Dumbarton is just as you said, the fact we got the winner when the momentum of the game had shifted heavily in their favour. The biggest thing for me against United was that despite their better performance in the second half (which I agree wasn't as good as Dumbarton's) we didn't look too uncomfortable defending them, apart from Alexander's flap that we got away with, I can't remember a defensive error or anything about their play that opened us up.

It was also interesting to see how many of their fans disappeared after our second goal... There was still plenty of time left at that point. Had they got behind their team rather than deserting them they might have staged an unlikely but not unheard of fightback... As it was, the apathy of the disappearing fans was met with a resignation to defeat on the park and we saw it out comfortably.

And as far as team of the week is concerned... They can keep picking our loan players and ignoring our signed players as far as I'm concerned. If we sign any of our loan players then start ignoring them too!

I read an amazing stat on Callum Carson's twitter page last night:

Callum Carson‏ @CallumCarson34 Oct 17

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In their 26 league games in 2017, Livingston have been behind for a total of 61 minutes - 45 of which were in one game.

Incredible too that we've only lost 2 of those 26 league games, East Fife and St Mirren.

McKinnon is on the way out and John Hughes is tipped as his replacement. #ohmydeargodutdaredoomed

ROFL

Hoppy is now being talked about in the papers as a new target for the Utd manager's job, hopefully they sign Hughes quick.