St Mirren v Livi (Tues Top of the League Clash)'

No time to rest on our laurels and savour our victory over QoS, we move onto Tues night's game against St Mirren, and one of us will move to top of the league after the referee blows for time up. We need to win and St Mirren will go top either with a win or a draw, so lets do this Livi, 2nd time we've had the chance to go top.

Hoppy has mentioned he'll use the squad and rotate players for the 3 games this week, i'd imagine Alexander, Gallagher, Lithgow Halkett, Pittman and Byrne and will start again, they've been the core of our team all season. Mullen may make this game too, could see Carrick/Mullen, Toddy up front, Robinson/Cadden, Knox/McMillan coming in too, depending if some of them have passed fitness after being out injured.

Thinking we'll be going into this looking for at least a draw and nicking the win but I thought the same about yesterday's game so i'm happy to be proved wrong and see us gubbing St Mirren 3-0 too.

2-1 Livi FG 14 mins.

Right then, both teams won yesterday... I just get the feeling that the run of results in our matches with StM where the away team doesn't lose has to come to an end at some point.

St M 2 Liv 1

FG 33 mins

Aye and it will come to an end when we play them at home in the next game, but this Tues we're going to gub them.

Going to head along to this, only other away game I've been to this season is Hibs and even last season I didn't make it to many away games. Looking forward to this and hopefully can get back to regular away games.

Despite being up for it I think we'll lose 1-0, FG 58 mins.

The Lions have earned the right to have a go at going top of this division albeit possibly not for to long.Personnally id bight your hand off for a point from this game but try telling Hoppy and the lads that i reckon ive an idea what the response would be.Going along great guns at the moment surely the Lions cant go top of the table,Can they?.Regardless theve superceeded my expectations so far and i would bet a few others.Get tore right intea them Livi and do it!!!

Liviforever wrote:Aye and it will come to an end when we play them at home in the next game, but this Tues we're going to gub them.

I knew as soon as I posted my last one that you would come up a reply such as this.

Bertie Bassett wrote:

Liviforever wrote:Aye and it will come to an end when we play them at home in the next game, but this Tues we're going to gub them.

I knew as soon as I posted my last one that you would come up a reply such as this.

You're the yin to my yang.

St Mirren 2. Livingston 1. FG 41 mins.

St Mirren 1 Livingston 2
FG 51 minutes

Too much enthusiasm for my liking.

0-2, FG 27 mins.

I've a mixture of excitement and butterflies in my stomach going into this game, i'll be absolutely buzzing if we come away with a win.

Liviforever wrote:

Bertie Bassett wrote:

Liviforever wrote:Aye and it will come to an end when we play them at home in the next game, but this Tues we're going to gub them.

I knew as soon as I posted my last one that you would come up a reply such as this.

You're the yin to my yang.

You can keep yer yang tae yersel!!

Strangely defensive team with no strikers in the starting eleven?

EDIT My mistake - Carrick's our lone striker

And he scored in the first half... Pity about the second half I suppose.

Notable that no one that attended has posted anything yet...

Well, I don't like getting beat but it is more bearable when you see that the other team is better.
We scored against the run of play and it was pleasing to be top of the league for more than half an hour. But you just knew it wasn't going to last.

When I saw the team lineup at the start it was obvious that this was the team rotation Hopkins talked about in the Courier. Not sure if I like it. No, I am sure - I don't like it. We would probably still have got beat with our strongest 11 but maybe not as comprehensively..

We were seated behind the goals and all the scoring was done at the other end. I've no idea what their penalty was for but whatever, it was soft and like as not a response to the noisy home fans behind the goals. It killed the game because at 2-1 you feel you've maybe got a wee chance of scraping a draw.

I hope we put out our strongest team on Saturday and maybe even see Danny back. I can't believe Falkirk are so poor and feel they are going to spark into life eventually. I just hope it's not on Saturday.

Have to say that's the first defeat I've come away from and not thought we could've got something from the game and were unlucky, St Mirren outplayed us and were very good moving the ball around, at one point we were chasing shadows for about 10 mins and couldn't get near them as they brought the ball out of defence, up to our box and then got a thow in and started all over again. Dunno how the feck the ball didn't go in our net when it hit the post and rolled along the goal line and then out for a corner. At that point I was thinking our luck was going that well we're going to win this but 2nd half after they scored I feared the worst. Best team we've played against, certainly improved a lot since the first twice we played them.
Can't complain too much about our players, they put in a good effort and made a couple of decent runs into the box but missed the final ball into the 6 yard box, if Cadden or Pittman's cross had found a Livi player we might have knocked the wind out off St Mirren's sails and had a chance of getting something but as I've said, no complaints at the result. Pity all the goals were scored up the other end though, couldn't really see what the feck was happening for any of them other than when it was in the net, or what happened for the penalty.
Still not bad being on 3 points from QoS and St Mirren, as long as we take another 3 from Falkirk it'll have been a decent haul from our 3 games this week.

Like Orco I fear Falkirk turning the corner sooner rather than later.
Like LF I agree that beating them for 6 points out of 9 would be a decent haul.

If you had the choice of going through the three games unbeaten but only winning 1 of the 3 & drawing the other 2 or winning, losing & winning - I'd take the latter for the extra point.

A bad night at the office. I don't think we played too well in isolation, but the team selection definitely killed any chance we had of getting something from this game. Was dubious about Carrick essentially starting up front on his own, but again, it's hard to get on a player's back when he's scored - there's no doubt though that having Danny Mullen in the side last night would have made a world of a difference. Can't really comment too much about their goals given they were at the other end of the ground, but it looked like three really soft ones to me. St Mirren obviously have individual quality in abundance compared to ourselves, Morgan and McGinn being the prime examples, but the space and time we afforded them at times was somewhat infuriating. Apparently the referee didn't offer a specific reason for the penalty to Hopkin post-match, just about sums the haddy up. The ridiculous booking of Byrne in the first half killed any real competitiveness from him, essentially leaving us a man down in the middle. A couple of other decisions, particularly in the second half, were a tad bewildering but I doubt a competent ref would've made much difference to the final result.

Last night also highlighted to me that our left side could potentially be problematic if we're attempting to challenge for the top 4 in a serious way; I like both Longridge and Cadden as players but I don't think either are suitable enough for the top half of this division. They're competent enough, but you couldn't help but get the feeling there was an enormous Penrice-shaped hole down that side for the entire game last night. I'm hoping we can find some system to suit us after he leaves, will be a loss but we'll have to adjust to suit.

Finally, shoutout to the pocket of St Mirren fans closest to ourselves, who done a royally good job of imitating the Tims both in song and in action. Was weird hearing their fans make a noise other than booing at home, even weirder was the amount of Maureens leaving the stadium early when their team was about to go top of the league. Crazy.

Yep was thinking the same myself Afro about it being a bad night at the office.But i reckon we we were just beaten by the better team on the night.When i saw the team sheet i must admit the nerves started to settle in.But of course i understand why Hoppy made the changes just a shame we couldnt have been at full Strength especially up front.Anyway we move on which is more than can be said of the St Mirrin fans on P&B.The bile been spewed by them is frankly nauseating embaresing and so boring.By all means wollow in your victory which you probably deserved but for gods sake give it a rest and move on.Icidently i wonder if the club have put covers done for Saturdays game,dont like the look of this weather and i dont think its forecast to be any better before the weekend.Fingers crossed and rant over.

Highlights: https://www.stmirren.com/buddievision-content/1346-buddievision-highlights-st-mirren-3-1-livingston

Bugger, that 2nd goal was cleared by Lithgow and comes off the back of Alexander and into our net, suppose it made up for the one in the first half that came off our post and somehow stayed out after it rolled along our goal line, our luck ran out 2nd half. Still don't know what the pen was for, can't really see anything other than the St Mirren player falling down, looked at it several times and can't make out how he went down.

I think a lot of teams are being told to go down easily when our players go near them. We have the reputation of being big and physical. We do close down and battle for the ball. but I don't think we are dirty. The way St Mirren fans are going on on P&B you'd think we had kicked them off the park. I didn't see any of them having to go off injured.

Referees hear noise from the home fans and are getting taken in.
The penalty was ridiculous. Their player jumped and landed on his erse.
St Mirren didn't need help from the ref last night but they got it anyway.

Missed the game but going by the highlights we were carved open a few times by St Mirren...Gallagher looked like he struggled against Morgan who looks a fantastic player. Great striker's instinct by Carrick to grab the first...he has his detractors but like Mackin looks worth a goal or two. Their first goal looks like Alexander could have done better but possibly was unsighted. The second looks like an own goal where it's cleared off the line but hit Alexander and goes in. As for the penalty...I've watched it over and over again and tried to figure out where the foul is...I still can't see one. Anyway games over, move on and get the heads up for the weekend...a good result against Falkirk and last night will be forgotten about in no time.

Also a side note....how ridiculous are the St Murn fans on P&B? Full of hatred for a team they have no real rivalry with. There seems to be a few that are actually sticking up for us but majority are spouting complete bile.

Most have been full of seethe and hate anytime I've been to their ground and we've beaten them, which was really fun entertainment, but I thought they'd be a bit cheerier after winning, apparently not!

We were asleep at the corner for the equaliser, they took it short so we should have pushed out to leave the taker offside, instead he is onside & fires in a saveable shot. Lithgow does well to clear the ball off the line but is very unlucky that it hits Alexander and goes in, the penalty clearly isn't one.

Bertie Bassett wrote:We were asleep at the corner for the equaliser, they took it short so we should have pushed out to leave the taker offside, instead he is onside & fires in a saveable shot. Lithgow does well to clear the ball off the line but is very unlucky that it hits Alexander and goes in, the penalty clearly isn't one.

That type of thing bugs me, when our player on the halfway line gets dragged back by an opposition player running up from the halfway line towards the corner taker, happens to Mullen a lot too, and Carrick was the one being dragged back there. The whole point of having a player up there at a corner is for us to get a break and score, wont happen if he's dragged back towards his own goal. We should have a player watching out for that and going out to mark him if it happens, so our attacking player will be left unmarked for us to break. That would also stop opposition teams trying it, as they'd be leaving themselves vulnerable to the counter attack. If you have 2 left up from a corner the opposition needs 3 marking them, if they want to have one of those leaving us 2 on 2, or 1 on 1 then fine, but we should be tactically aware they may try that move when they're taking corners.

We did something similar at corners, to take 2 defenders out of the box Pittman ran out towards our corner taker, good tactic.