Falkirk v Livi

Start of a tough month of games for us, but the other teams around us have tough games too so I think even a draw here would be a good result for us and keeps us in 3rd place. However a win would prob open up a bigger gap on the Pars who have Morton away and QoS who have St Mirren away.

It will be interesting to see how Hoppy lines us up for this, will he field a more defensive team (Buchanan-Halkett-Lithgow-McMillan & Gallagher as a holding midfielder) to try and keep it tight and grind out a draw, and maybe nick a win, or will he go with a back 3 and a bit more skill in midfield (Gallaghe-Halkett-Lithgow & Thompson-Rafa). The latter would give us a more fluent attacking looking team that would get us goals, but maybe more likely to concede a goal too.

If Buchanan was concussed he may not be allowed to play just 7 days later for medical safety reasons so that would sort that out but I think we had a better shape as a back 3 when Gallagher dropped back into defence. Tricky one but the return of Byrne alongside Pittman at least gives us a solid defensive looking midfield that would allow either Robinson or Boyd to play as attacking midfielders, just behind Miller & Hardie, and Thompson also playing would give us a midfielder who looks to have a pop at goal.

Because of all that i'm actually looking forward to this game, the last 2 games against Falkirk have been terrible ones to watch but I think the options we have now could make this a decent game, and one we can win.

I'd like to see us line up:

..                                       Alexander


..               Gallagher          Halkett                   Lithgow


.Mullin                  Byrne               Pittman                         De Vita


..                                      Robinson


..                         Hardie                   Miller  


And bring Thompson & Boyd on for Rafa & Robinson 2nd half, maybe McMillan for Mullin too, as a defensive substitution if/when we go into the last 10 mins a goal ahead.
             

An optimistic 2-1 Livi win, fg 37 mins.

I believe Falkirk have turned the corner. They may not be as potent as they have been in previous seasons but they have taken 9 goals off United & Caley for the loss of only 2 & any recent defeats haven't been too heavy. They are now clear of 9th & will be confident of turning us over in their house after snatching the cup tie at ours.

Hoppy doesn't seem to have a settled XI at the moment, the advantage of that is the squad are showing they are all capable, the downside is a lack of continuity which can mean we take a while to play to each line-ups strengths.

Home advantage will prove to be crucial in this one I think as we are no longer a surprise package (the downside of so many games against the same opposition) & I think having drawn with us & sneaked that cup win without conceding a goal, they will be ready to regain their self respect after our two wins their earlier in the season.

Fal 2 Liv 1 fg 27 mins

Would go with LF's starting XI, I really liked the look of Robinson in midfield and reckon he could do a great job in there, dropping deeper if need be. I don't think we can play much worse than we did against them last week, so hopefully we've taken something away from that game in terms of how to deal with them. There's no doubt Falkirk have turned a corner, but they're languishing in the lower reaches of the league for a reason - if we're serious about the top four, we'll be doing well to avoid defeat here. A draw wouldn't be the worst but there is nothing sweeter than turning this lot over, particularly in Grangemouth.

1-1, FG 32 mins.

Their win over ICT was good but it was helped by a couple of penalties and a Caley player being sent off, and even after they'd turned a corner they got a jammy late goal against us to scrape their win in the cup. Our away form has been pretty good too, so I think we have a decent chance of taking the points again at TFS.
Would be sweet if Dumbarton beat Brechin and our result against Falkirk sent them back down to 9th.

Despite our poor performance against them last week they didn't really get that many chances, particularly in the first half, except when our defence started to go to sleep.

Provided Hopkins can ensure that feeling of lethargy etc. doesn't reappear I cant see them getting more than a solitary goal whereas I really do think we can score at least two there based on what I saw at the weekend. Yes; I know we only scored two against a Dumbarton side that swapped places with Falkirk but we hit the woodwork twice and should have had two penalties.

Play like that against Falkrik and we're sure to score; Falkirk were a well drilled and disciplined defence but they were no where near as competent as QoS in my opinion. We will get chances; we just need to be sure we take them.

I say Falkirk 1 Livingston 2 with first goal on 35 minutes

Liviforever wrote:Their win over ICT was good but it was helped by a couple of penalties and a Caley player being sent off, and even after they'd turned a corner they got a jammy late goal against us to scrape their win in the cup. Our away form has been pretty good too, so I think we have a decent chance of taking the points again at TFS.
Would be sweet if Dumbarton beat Brechin and our result against Falkirk sent them back down to 9th.

Agreed - just had a look at the thread on P&B and it almost made my eyes bleed. Maybe an offshoot of having two games against the same opposition in little more than a week but even so. They seem fixated by Lithgow for something that allegedly happened when he was a teenager; others are fascinated by the name of the stadium or calling us hoofball thugs.

Really does take the biscuit when Falkirk fans try to take the moral high ground particularly after the Dean Sheils and, in my opinion, the even worse Norrie McCathie incidents.

Sending them back below Dumbarton would be sweet.

Not sure how I feel about this, we didn't play well (or the right line up IMO) in the Scottish Cup game against them, but I'm going to assume they weren't at their best either. On the other hand, their 'pumping' of ICT only started when Caley went down to 10 men, so I'm not sure if they've fully turned the corner or are still struggling.

Gallagher looked a lot better when he went back into defence against Dumbarton, would like to see him there again, likely at the expense of Buchanan after his injury.


Reckon Hardie and Boyd could do well and still gives us Miller from the bench.

2-1 Falkirk, FG 23 mins.

Much easier to drop Buchanan if he's carrying a knock from the last game. Would rather see Thompson in a game like this instead of Robinson. Also reckon Longridge will start for more defensive cover.

Falkirk 1. Livingston 1. FG 39 mins.

Been saying for yonks that Falkirk would turn their season around at some time.Looks like their steadily doing just that.Difficult one to call this.Both teams of the back of good victories last weekend although we still have a healthy gap over them at moment which of course they will obviously try to narrow.The onus is on them as their at home but i feel if we play at the top of our game we will be worth at least a point here.An improvement on the last showing between these two will surely be required and hopefully our frontline can put this lot to the sword as weve done before.As i say difficuilt bot not impossible to put a halt to their mini resurgense and keep that gap.Over to you Livi!!!

ICT v Utd game p-p, so if we win this game we'll close the gap on Utd to 1 point and have a better GD on them too, mon Livi we can get the pressure on Utd for 2nd place.

Great result today and other results going our way...puts a bit of daylight between us and 4th plus a game in hand.

Terrific result. Lithgow becoming a goal machine???

Sounds like it was a good performance to match the result... Well done to the team, let's hope we can do the same to the Pars next week.

What a result and what a performance. We came out and played football, passed it about through the midfield and absolutely dominated the first half. The goal was no more than we deserved and prob should've went in 2 or 3 up and it wouldn't have flattered us. Lovely goal from Lithgow too, hit with the outside of his foot as he picked his spot.

2nd half we were still the better team and all Falkirk were offering was hopeful punts up the pitch, stunning ball into Hardie from Thompson and brilliantly headed into the net. 3rd was a superb free kick by Rafa but I see Hardie is trying to claim it , not bothered which one scored but I think it has been given as Rafa's. We dropped off a bit when Falkirk scored but can't blame the players for that, they had put so much effort into the game dominating it up till then and it was Fakirk's first shot on target. Falkirk should've had a 2nd with a great ball over the top to Longridge but he somehow missed the chance when it looked easier to score than put it past the post. They really wouldn't have deserved it though, and it was a pity we even conceded a goal to feck our clean sheet up, we pummelled them and thoroughly deserved the 3 points.

Hardie is a proper striker, you just get on the edge of your seat whenever he gets a ball put into him, he inspires confidence as he looks like he'll score in every game now, brilliant signing by Hoppy. Thompson has also looked superb these last 2 games. Everyone had a great game though, even Cadden, he started skinning his man and was putting in great balls from the byeline.

Really looking forward to us playing the Pars next week, we will finally get a win over them, i'm so confident of that.

If the law to outlaw spanking Bairns is enforced this may become an offence....

https://vimeo.com/254137696

Superb stuff; looks to me like Hardie just got a strand of hair on Rafa's cross for the 3rd.

Tremendous result and performance from the Lions yesterday and more than worthy of the three points against a supposedly resurgant Falkirk.Three very well taken goals but Hardies bullet header the pick of the bunch for me.Shame about their goal at the end but the boy took it well for what turned out to be only a consolation for them.Sincerely hope that your earlier prediction L/F of sub zero temps later on this week doesent give us anything to worry about regarding the pitch against the Pars.Would agree,get the covers down now so to give us a chance in case the weather detereats.Once again plaudits to Hoppy and the lads for a continued job well done!!!

What a contrast to the borefest cup game. The score flattered Falkirk. We did have the ball in the net on one more occasion but the ref considered that the goalie had been fouled. As far as I could see he just missed the ball. That was only one of many strange decisions by the official. Same old!

The whole team played well. I would single out Cadden who looked like the player he was in his early days with the club and Lithgow who always puts in a power of work and sticks to a no nonsense type of old fashioned football.

Let's hope we can continue this form next week against the Pars who I think will test us more than we were yesterday. A win would go a long way to getting one of the play off positions.

At first I thought McKendrick was never going to give a foul all game, he was letting everything go, which tbh I didn't mind as it was preferable to the arsehole of a ref last week stopping the game every time we looked at a Dumbarton player the wrong way, but it didn't last and the cards started coming out for Livi players, but kept in his pocket for Falkirk ones, Sibbald in particular gets away with murder every time he's played us, and Longridge was on a mission fouling our players but never got booked (I think he was jealous of his brother last Tues putting Taiwo into the advertising boards injuring him, and wanted to show he could be just as hard in this game).

Hardie got booked for pulling a Falkirk's players shirt, which is fair enough, but every fecking ball that Gallagher went for there were Falkirk players hanging onto his shirt, same in the last game against them. There was a hand ball in the box where a Falkirk player moved his arm towards the ball punching it away but that was deemed accidental too, just glad it didn't make any difference to the outcome, but it is annoying just the same.

Thomson flapped at ever high ball and was dropping balls all game but the ref continually bailed him out by blowing for non existent fouls.

Anyway, GIRUY SFA and you shite officiating and card happy Livi booking trolls.

Aye Troy, I hope we get the game on next weekend, we're on a roll just now and we don't want another postponed game interrupting our current form.

We've the best away form in the league but as long as we don't have anymore call offs for home games I think our home form will pick up too.

After I posted I remembered another refereeing incident. - Two Falkirk players and Livi's Declan G going for a ball. The Falkirk players send each other sprawling. Yip, foul and free kick to Falkirk. Unbelievable, some of these eejits every week!

Aye that one was a cracker, two of them tackled one another and the ref gave them a foul, feck me.

All three goals were outstanding in their own way and they summed up a very impressive team performance. I know they've only played together for 180 minutes, but that midfield three of Pittman, Byrne and Thompson seem to have a lot of energy and technique to take control of games.

I've savoured the victory over the weekend but the Dunfermline game now has extra significance. Hopkin has said three more points and we can near enough confirm that we're safe but let's see it as an opportunity to establish our (promotion) play-off credentials.

Second goal on Saturday in particular was delicious. A great ball in from Thompson and a sumptuous header in off the crossbar from Hardie. Made all the more better that it was against Falkirk. Sadly, I think they will stay up, as they showed more in the last 20 minutes when we let the foot off a bit than Dumbarton have in three games against us this season. Still, sets us up very well for next Saturday and as LC says above, a win would really establish us as favourites to be in the top four come May.

LiviCub wrote:All three goals were outstanding in their own way and they summed up a very impressive team performance. I know they've only played together for 180 minutes, but that midfield three of Pittman, Byrne and Thompson seem to have a lot of energy and technique to take control of games.

I've savoured the victory over the weekend but the Dunfermline game now has extra significance. Hopkin has said three more points and we can near enough confirm that we're safe but let's see it as an opportunity to establish our (promotion) play-off credentials.

Hopkin will still be talking about us being safe when we are on 66 points and sitting 2nd in the league.

Mathematically, Brechin can still win 42 points on top of the 4 they have already - so technically we need 7 more points to ensure we are not automatically relegated.

In reality we all know that Brechin will not win all 14 of their remaining games, nor will they win 12 of their games while we lose all 14 of ours.

Thus in real terms we are not going to be relegated automatically.

So turning out attention to Dumbarton; mathematically they can win also 42 points to add to their 20; which means we need 24 points to reach the safety target of 63.

Again, in reality we know they will not win 14 games & apart from that, even if they did there would be other reams dropping points so that the number of points required to be safe would not be 63.

Boiling it all down, even my glass half empty level of optimism means that I think it is highly unlikely that results between now & the end of the season will return the points swing required for us to finish in the bottom 2.

So... I can exclusively reveal that the lowest we will finish is 8th.

That said, & this shows how big that win was on Saturday.... Although Falkirk are on 23 points, they have played a game more than Dumbarton - and us - so 63 points ensures we finish no lower than 7th.

So I am relatively confident that the lowest we will finish is 7th.

Now as my pre-season expectation was to finish 8th, finishing 7th would be excellent. Furthermore, and whisper it now because I don't want anyone thinking that LF has hacked my account... I think we will finish higher than 7th!

Dumbarton are heading for 32 points based on what they've got and how many games left to play.


We're heading for 63 points based on how many we have after 22 games and how many games we've left to play. I don't think that figure will be too far away. That would get us at least 4th place and prob 3rd, we'd need to exceed that to get 2nd place.

Your assessment assumes both teams will average the same points per game as they have done so far over the remaining games - that is actually unlikely to happen in practice. If that's how seasons played out they could just have everyone play each other once & multiply their points by 4