Pars v Livi (Tues 7.45 pm ko)

A draw wouldn't be a bad result here, it would have us 9 points clear of both Morton and Dunfermline, and still have a game in hand over the Pars too, but I would love for us to finally get a win against them, they're the only team in the Championship we haven't beaten.

I just hope Hoppy doesn't stick to his usual form when players are just back from serving a suspension, and sticking with the same starting line up from the prev game till the start of the 2nd half before bringing on Halkett and Lithgow. It has cost us in 2 other games and I don't want to have to suffer 45 minutes of nervous exhaustion waiting on him bringing them on.

Anyhoo, that aside I've a good feeling going into this one and can see us finally getting that win over them, a resounding 3-1 win for the Livi Lions says mystic Liviforever, fg 12 mins.

Agree. Get Halkett and Lithgow straight back in there. And no messing with Gallagher in the midfield. The makeshift defence coped yesterday but there was little for them to have to deal with.

Feck me the Easter beast has appeared, hope it doesn't knacker our game, we're just starting to get back into our stride after having a few months of stops starts with the bloody weather.

Agree, we should go with our strongest available side.

I think they could be our bogey side, I think I said as much at the start of the season, so while I would dearly love to see us paste them all over their plastic pitch, I fear another draw is on the cards.

Dun 1 Liv 1 FG 35 mins

Yeh.Tricky one this.Would agree with Bertie on this one that a share of the spoils will probably have to suffice here.Both teams will no doubt be bhoyed by their respective results at the weekend.Possibly home advantage may favour them but try telling that to our lads.Reasonably confident that we can get at least a point here if not 3 and certainly nothing to fear from the men from Fife.Over to you Livi,lets see if we can keep this superb momentum going.Do it!!!

Looks like Andy Ryan hasn't been getting any game time which isn't surprising IMO.

However Mvoto has also been missing which, considering how tightly he marked Hardie last time, can only be good news.

Don't know what to make of this one; we need to keep Clark under control.

I'm predicting a 2 - 1 Livi win with FG on 47th minute but I'm honestly not awfully confident. Dunfermline has been the one side closest all season to cancelling us out.

Hoping for a memorable win for Craig Halkett's 100th appearance for the club.

Dunfermline 2. Livingston 0. FG 13 mins.

1-1, FG 28 mins

Just seen the lineup - WTF
Six midfielders; no Miller; no Lithgow; no Buchanan....
Tempted to change my prediction; Hopkins must know something I don't about the Pars team lineup.


Update - Scratch that; just been updated and Lithgow is in the team .Phew!

Same as last time - 1-3, FG 27 mins.

Afro, do you mean 3-1 to Livi (we are away so traditionally our score is the second number) or 3-1 to Dunfy (using the system of putting our score first cos they are our team) - the latter seems to make sense given your 'same as last time' phrase.

Anyway, 11 mins gone & the bogey team strikes first.

HT
Dunfy 1 Livi 0
United 2 Dumb 0
Caley 2 Brechin 0
QoS 0 Falk 1

Could do with at least getting an equaliser.

Reading the updates on the OCS it sounds like we have dominated but have nothing to show for it

Should have had a penalty at the death but it was one of those nights. Finnie is an awful referee. Both sets of fans were baffled at some of his decisions.
We deserved a draw but couldn't get the ball in the net.
Miller should have started. Hardie was isolated for the first half.

For all the good that Hoppy has done he still seems to make fundamental mistakes. He left Miller out against Falkirk and we looked more likely to score when he came on. He should have learned from that.


Still can't grumble too much. If we can hold on to 2nd we may have to face Dunfermline twice more, that would be the time to beat them.

orco wrote:Should have had a penalty at the death but it was one of those nights. Finnie is an awful referee. Both sets of fans were baffled at some of his decisions.
We deserved a draw but couldn't get the ball in the net.
Miller should have started. Hardie was isolated for the first half.

Bertie Bassett wrote:For all the good that Hoppy has done he still seems to make fundamental mistakes. He left Miller out against Falkirk and we looked more likely to score when he came on. He should have learned from that.


Still can't grumble too much. If we can hold on to 2nd we may have to face Dunfermline twice more, that would be the time to beat them.

Yep, thought the same when I saw Miller was left out.

Like I said in another thread, really don't want the Pars in the play offs, we just can't seem to beat them, looks like they're going to be there though, which isn't good for us.

Better to lose this game rather than later on in the season. I'm more confident now of finishing the season unbeaten than I was of extending it between last night and the final game against Dundee United. Now it's over, an unbeaten run like the one we had is one less thing to worry about.

A bad night for us but this group have always bounced back impressively after defeat.

Liviforever wrote:

orco wrote:Should have had a penalty at the death but it was one of those nights. Finnie is an awful referee. Both sets of fans were baffled at some of his decisions.
We deserved a draw but couldn't get the ball in the net.
Miller should have started. Hardie was isolated for the first half.

Bertie Bassett wrote:For all the good that Hoppy has done he still seems to make fundamental mistakes. He left Miller out against Falkirk and we looked more likely to score when he came on. He should have learned from that.


Still can't grumble too much. If we can hold on to 2nd we may have to face Dunfermline twice more, that would be the time to beat them.

Yep, thought the same when I saw Miller was left out.

Like I said in another thread, really don't want the Pars in the play offs, we just can't seem to beat them, looks like they're going to be there though, which isn't good for us.

Hopkin has consistently said this season that each game is taken as it comes and tries not to look any further ahead. It seems Miller was more needed for the Dumbarton game where we HAD to take three points against a poorer quality of opposition rather than last night. Much rather take defeat against Dunfermline than Dumbarton.

Agree that Hardie was isolated but that was because he thought it was necessary to pack the defence/midfield against a team who are in good form. Luckily we only have one more midweek game before the season ends so I'd expect Miller to start most weeks as usual.

A 6 pointer against Dunfermline was just as important as the Dumbarton game though, a win there would've killed them off, but alas it wasn't to be.
Utd having the double header against Dumbarton is effectively 6 points they're being given, so we really need to beat Morton or they're going to close the gap to just 3 points with a game in hand. It really changes quite quickly, after only 1 defeat in 12 games too, but hopefully we continue not losing back to back league games.

LiviCub wrote:Hopkin has consistently said this season that each game is taken as it comes and tries not to look any further ahead. It seems Miller was more needed for the Dumbarton game where we HAD to take three points against a poorer quality of opposition rather than last night. Much rather take defeat against Dunfermline than Dumbarton.

Agree that Hardie was isolated but that was because he thought it was necessary to pack the defence/midfield against a team who are in good form. Luckily we only have one more midweek game before the season ends so I'd expect Miller to start most weeks as usual.

Why on earth would you care more about losing to a team that couldn't possibly catch up as opposed to one that could knock us out of the play-off positions?

We already know what works this season so why keep abandoning it each time we play the Pars at their place. Hopkins strategy was obviously either to see things out until half time before bringing Miller on or to play for a draw. If that was so and we were down a goal after just 11 minutes; why leave it until the 65 minute to bring on a second striker? Completely baffling.

Durnford wrote:

LiviCub wrote:Hopkin has consistently said this season that each game is taken as it comes and tries not to look any further ahead. It seems Miller was more needed for the Dumbarton game where we HAD to take three points against a poorer quality of opposition rather than last night. Much rather take defeat against Dunfermline than Dumbarton.

Agree that Hardie was isolated but that was because he thought it was necessary to pack the defence/midfield against a team who are in good form. Luckily we only have one more midweek game before the season ends so I'd expect Miller to start most weeks as usual.

Why on earth would you care more about losing to a team that couldn't possibly catch up as opposed to one that could knock us out of the play-off positions?

We already know what works this season so why keep abandoning it each time we play the Pars at their place. Hopkins strategy was obviously either to see things out until half time before bringing Miller on or to play for a draw. If that was so and we were down a goal after just 11 minutes; why leave it until the 65 minute to bring on a second striker? Completely baffling.

For a start, this Dumbarton team is pretty poor. They actually have good players for a part-time team and (supposedly) an up-and-coming manager in Stevie Aitken. Granted we've gotten better, but I expected much more from a team who have previously quite comfortably punched above their weight in years gone by. Simply put, it'd be an embarrassment at this stage of the season to lose to a team who have all but confirmed the relegation play-off spot even.

Having lost to Dunfermline, it has set a more realistic expectation of what teams expect from us and what we expect from the opposition. Teams are now set-up against us in the same way as we were up until January. Even though he was playing on his own, Ryan Hardie was man marked and even when Miller came on, he was still man marked. The main point I'm trying to make is it's a reality check and settles the nerves for trying to extend that unbeaten run which has now ended.

I agree that Hopkin shouldn't have changed the 3-5-2 but they have definitely looked the most physical team that we've played this season. If we do play them again in the play-offs then I would agree with others who have said to at least start McMillan and Miller.

It's all part of Hoppy's masterplan, if we have to play Dunfermline in the play offs they'll be expecting the same again from us, so Hoppy has deliberately messed about with our starting XI, luring them in, but then he'll hit them with a full strength team and blow them away. Devious and brilliant from the Hopster.

I suppose our wee run had to come to an end sometime.Was surprised we played with one man up front for a good bit of the game.Nevertheless lets not forget we are still in the driving seat here and still have our our destination in our own hands without having to rely on favours from others.Personnally id have bitten your hand off to be in this position a few months back and i can almost smell the Playoffs.Any ways we move on.Just a couple more things to say.Piss off snow enough is enough.And before i go RIP Ray Wilkins,will miss him on Talk Sport.If only all ex footballers conducted themselves in the manner that this legend did the football world be a better place.Thanks for the memories Ray LOL.

He (Ray) had an on air argument with a journo a few months back, I think it was Shaun Custiss, and it was hilarious as Ray kept calm but completely rinced him as he got angrier & angrier.