Dumbarton v Livi

1-1, FG 24 mins.

Bertie Bassett wrote:Share of the spoils methinks.

Dum 1 Liv 1

FG 35 mins

Modifying my prediction for this one... I believe we have peaked this season & will now struggle for the remainder. I sincerely hope I am wrong...

Dumbarton 2 Livingston 0

FG 31 minutes

Liviforever wrote:Rearranged for boxing day, nice excuse to get out the house for a few hours and work off the turkey dinner from xmas day.

We're having Christmas dinner today as my oldest had to work yesterday... We had present opening & a good old fashioned Scottish heart-stopper of a fry up breakfast (was actually brunch by the time we had it, but brunch is English... So in my book it was an all-day b/fast )

Wrap up warm (assuming it's on as I haven't seen anything to the contrary) and I hope the lads give you some Christmas cheer.

As I type this Harry Kane has just broken Alan Shearer's record for EPL goals in a calendar year and needs 1 more to surpass Messi for club & country goals for 2017. The guy is a goal machine & I hope he goes on to eventually break Shearer's all time EPL record & Rooney's England record.

So, 1-0 Dumbaron on 25 mins
1-1 thru Halkett on 27 mins
1-2 thru Pittman on 43 mins
And that's the story of the first half.

Once again our defenders & midfielders doing the scoring... Really need to get Hartson to start earning his corn!

Glad to see we were all wrong and Livi pulled off an absolute brilliant result, and look back to our best pressing players and banging in goals.

Scott Robinson has some goals to game ratio, was on fire before he got injured and is back scoring again. Same with Mackin, gets on yer tits when he isn't working hard enough but he certainly scores goals.

We really needed this win to give us a lift after the last wee spell, back up to 3rd place and looking strong again.

Mackin for 3-1
Robertson for 4-1
Knox has penalty saved
And Hutton gets 2 yellows in quick succession for Dumbarton to finish with 10 men

Superb end to 2017's away fixtures, just Dunfermline to come on Saturday at home. And it means we have played the entire year (2017) without losing 2 on the bounce, that speaks volumes for the confidence, camaraderie & c-teamwork ethic.

And absolutely delighted to be wrong again

Delighted with today's score. I can't give my synopsis of the game since I am in bed no well. Cheered me up though.

Wasn't too confident going into this one originally, less so given the pumping we were dealt on Saturday. Huge credit to the team for having the mental strength to turn it around and despatch our bogey team with quite a bit to spare. Given what's happened in the past week that's a true measure of the squad, and timely as well. I doubt Saturday's game will be on but it should be a decent boost ahead of Inverness next Tuesday.

No failures for me today. Cadden and Longridge who I've previously marked out as unsuitable for this level looked competent, same goes for the front pairing who I think made the world of difference today. I wasn't really a fan of Mackin previously, thought he was a lazy, slow lump, now I see he was just an unfit, slow lump; fairly got around today and I think that's his best performance for us despite only netting once. Some of the link-up play between himself, Pittman and De Vita for a spell of 10-15 minutes in the second half was exactly what we've been missing recently. Incredible that we've dealt a humping to Dumbarton without Mullin and Boyd, and without Penrice for the majority of the game.

Superb moral boost for the Lions today and one that i must admit did not see coming,so hands up for that one.Was also good to see the goals getting spread around again regardless of Knox,s penalty miss.Going by the twitter feed Aitkens tactics were to literaly boot us of the park even after they had opened the scoring,a game plan that obviously backfired on them.Once again i,ll point out that we are now 18 points clear of Falkirk in 9th which to me is amazing going into the new year.Incidently Pars fans going ballistic on P&B about our lack of pitch protection and the prospect of next Saturdays game being called off.Personnally i,ll be gutted if this is off as i reckon they are there for the taking.More on that before the weekend.Oh and i almost forgot.Get well soon Orco and LOL from T.

Just noticed that Dumbarton game was watched by 495 people... And we are worried by our crowd which is usually almost double that figure.

Much as I would hate to leave the 'Vale perhaps the solution is to get a smaller, more compact ground.

Yep, it's the rent & ground maintenance that is killing us at the Vale, that's why going PT would make little or no difference, we really need to either move to a smaller more affordable ground, or get bigger crowds, neither of which seems to be an easy thing to do.

Five changes from the game against Dundee United. Hopkin clearly knew this game was the priority and it paid off.

The man is a genius.

Utd: Maley, Mullin, Boyd, Todorov, Penrice

Dumbarton: Alexander, Jacobs, Cadden, De Vita, Mackin

I doubt saving Alexander was anything tactical other than he wasn't fit to play against Utd, not sure what the score was with Boyd, maybe wasn't allowed to play a rearranged postponed game with him not being signed at the time of it first being scheduled.

But he decided to rest Mullin and Penrice for Cadden and Jacobs, and brought in Mackin for Toddy so that certainly paid off, good use of our small squad when we're playing so many games.

Alexander, Gallagher, Halkett, Lithgow, Pittman & Byrne are the core of our team and can't really miss games unless ill/injured/suspended. I prefer Jacobs in there too but he's been left out quite a bit.

Highlights are up om RogerThatProductions website. https://twitter.com/rogerthatvideo


https://vimeo.com/248848975

Observations on the video highlights...

Terrific long ball & finish for the Dumbarton goal.

Didn't look like there was much wrong with Dec's goal but it's a fair distance so not clear.

Looked like we could have had a pen before equalising with the WWE move in the box but the ball broke kindly for Craig to knock it.

Scotty P's goal was sheer class, what a brilliant piece of play, contender for goal of the season IMO superb team work & composed finish.

3rd goal was like taking candy from a baby.

4th goal also seemed to be a kind break for us again but we rarely get those so it's about time we did