Premiership Play Off Final v Partick Th

One other thing to mention; whereas its great to be where we are and competing for a place in the premiership; its worth remembering that the last time we got up to the (then) SPL many accused us of doing it by Buying the league and weakening other teams, particularly Raith and ICT (and maybe Airdrieoneans but they were folding anyway).

This time we are where we are by working on a shoestring budget, within our means, and if anyone's bought the league then it has to be St. Mirren.

Irrespective of the result on Sunday its nice to have a bit of pride in the team (and the board) again.

Yeah Airdrie went into liquidation and we picked up a couple of their players, was right at the end of the season though and didn't help us till we were in the SPL. Raith were on the brink of admin and we did a deal for 3 of their players, that def made a huge difference after we had lost 4-0 to them too, but we again took advantage of a team in financial trouble and actually helped them stave off administration, I think they like to forget that part of the historical record.

No argument that this is by far a greater achievement, and if we go up it is probably the biggest footballing achievement in our history with the budget we have. Playing in Europe was brilliant, and finishing 3rd in the top league was the best any club outside the OF could achieve, and winning a major trophy will always be hailed as the best honour we have won, but we had a big budget in those days and some tremendous players that played for clubs far bigger than us before and after we had them. This group are a bit like the dirty dozen, with Hoppy being Lee Marvin harnessing their talents and moulding them into a formidable team.

All mixed up with my days this week, was thinking this was Saturday and was going to watch the Scottish cup final.

Big weekend coming up for the Cadden twins.

Highlights: https://vimeo.com/270589962

Talking about being mixed up - I started the pre season thinking maybe we'd get 5th place then I heard we'd not really replaced Buchanan and started to think we'll be lucky to get seventh or eighth. I was actually looking at the sides that would probably finish below us; not how far we could get.

How silly do I feel now?

It really is difficult to believe Partick can be as bad as they were last night; that being said if P&B is to be believed about 30% of them are already being courted by other sides.

I passionately believe we'll score; at least one; its difficult to see their defence holding out against our speed; effectively meaning they'd need to score three goals to go through (or two and penalties); that's a hell of an ask for a team that barely got one shot on target last night.

We are threadbare at the front but have a full complement for defence so, unless they're hiding some really great talent under the hedge we should be able to handle them.

Of course we have the "unknown" factor to take into account - thew standard of refereeing - they should have had at least one player sent off last night but for a moment I thought it was going to be us.

YeeHaa!

Cant see Shaun Byrne's name anywhere...

SFA Suspensions

Surely to Christ we’ll get a big decision our way on Sunday? They do say these things even themselves out over a season...

Afro wrote:Surely to Christ we’ll get a big decision our way on Sunday? They do say these things even themselves out over a season...

Actually I think they're going for consistency.

Unfortunately that means they're consistently shite.

Thankfully the ineptide shown by that moron of a referee that is Craig Thompson last night didnt stop Livi from getting a more than desrved victory.And hes supposed to be one of our best refs,aye right my arse.Any way a truely gutsty perfomance from the Lions last night compounded by the scoreline that deffinitly flattered Thistle.In fact Neil Alexander hardly broke sweat all night with the exception of picking the ball out of the net.Lee Miller another tremendous shift from the big man and i really hope hes ok for Sunday.Wee Robbo was a pest to them all night which was pleasing to see and Pitts back to his usual self,in fact the whole team were magnificent .And a special word for Hoppy for getting the guys up for this.Great support again last night well done to all.The team are gonna get the support they deserve on Sunday for hopefully a special day and im proud to say i,ll be one of them.Cmon the Lions.For the last time this season.DO IT!!!

To pick up on some points from LF & D....

Archibald was saying Thistle were forced to play long ball tactics due to us closing them down from the off, we pressed the ball all over the pitch starting from the forwards. They didn’t play long ball because we did (we mixed up our style of play all game as usual), they played long ball because we closed off the options for them & harassed them into getting rid of it. So he was actually paying us a compliment.

Jim Duffy has been highly complimentary of us & was again on the sportsound coverage last night. He regularly says that anyone who thinks we are only a physical, long ball side doesn’t know what they are talking about. (Not a direct quote, but reading between the lines). Steven Thompson also stuck up for us on Sportscene. Jack Ross was also complimentary during the win at Tannadice.

So not all the 2nd tier managers & pundits have disrespected us.

Anyway, we go again on Sunday, hopefully with enough fit players to last the 90 or 120 minutes that we will have to play. The lads can only give their all & see where it takes them.

Duffy has always been honest and gives a good account of how we play, he's been the only one though.

Archibald was respectful about us pre match and said we can play good football too, and have good players, and hasn't said anything untowards against us post match that can be pinned up on the dressing room wall as Utd players and manager did, so fair play to him for that. He said they got drawn into playing long balls and their fans are saying they got sucked into playing us at our own game, but they played long balls right from the start and didn't even try to play any other way.

You may be right and it is because of how we play that teams end up playing 'how we want them to play', but managers don't seem to realise that. I read Archibald saying it wasn't their plan to play like that and he doesn't know why they did it, that's worked in our favour this season too, nobody seems to know how to play against us and handle our energy and drive in pressing their players.

They had a couple of fast passing moves but we defended them well, showing them to the outside & stopping the cross, the only cross we didn’t deal with was the their goal & it was a superb delivery from deep which caught Lithgow out as he was trying to track the flight while running towards our goal & looking back over his shoulder, he misjudged it and it dropped right on to Doolan’s napper.
I initially thought Alexander could have come for it but seeing it on TV it was maybe just a wee bit too far out.

Just watched our highlights on Sportscene on bbc I player, yeah Steven Thompson was pretty decent towards us, and I was impressed by him. Not so much with Michael Stewart though, sticking with the agricultural references. Quite surprised by that as it is usually the other way around when listening to those two, and Stewart is the one talking sense. Well done Steven Thompson.

Loved how they praised Partick's long ball into the box for the goal too, it was a cracking ball in but i'll bet if we'd scored it they would have brushed it off as being a lump up the pitch into the box.

Have none of them ever watched Barcelona hunt in packs to press the ball back, it isn't all about pretty football with Barca, they put in a hell of an effort off the ball to regain possession, yet I've never heard anyone referring to Barca as being agricultural. Livi are no different in that part of our game.

Correct on the Barce reference; Man City too... it’s the Guardiola way. Pep has actually said that the point of all the passing is to work an opening to give someone a scoring opportunity, if the option is there to do it with a long ball then do it. He prefers short passing because it means if they lose the ball they are immediately in a tight pack to hunt it down & win it back.

Honhestly the deafetest rhetoric emminating from the Thistle forums is bordering nauseation.I for one aint getting sucked in by their false pretences.We know we are going to have to work our preverbial socks off to pull this off and sicerely hope the bare bones can give it one final push.A special day potentialy awaits us tommorow.May the best team win,hopefully us,and come back to Livingston for a monumental piss up.Either way thanks lads for getting us here and good luck for tommorow.LOL T.

Hoppy saying we're not going there to hold onto our one goal lead, which is good, that would end up a disaster. Just need to get Pittman the hitman to score, apparently we've never lost a game when Scotty has scored, seems a great game plan to me, mon the Scotty P. Would be something special if he could do one of his 25 yard thunderfecks into the net, it would be a very fitting way for us to win promotion.

We aren't there yet though, it'll take another monumental effort from the lads, but we're so close I can see the blackheads on the Premiership's nervous, sweaty face, as it begins to  panic seeing Livi getting closer to the entrance.

Oh btw, may as well finish my predictions with a Livi win, 2-1 Livi would do me fine, fg 9 mins.

As much as some of the media and the Thistle fans seem to be writing this tie off as already being over, lets not forget last year Falkirk travelled to Killie with a 1 goal lead and got pumped 4-0(?). I can't see us conceding as many as that, but Thistle do have a couple of good players who could hurt us on their day, Doolan already has, not sure if they'll have Erskine back but he's another I'd fancy to be a threat if he does make it.

Confident the team will go out and smash it, only 90 minutes of the season left, make it count. No matter what happens and no matter what league we're in next season they've all been fantastic and it's been a real breath of fresh air having players who give 100% every single week and don't just look like they're going through the motions. Can't wait for tomorrow, should be a belting atmosphere in the away end; 6 buses (344 people) and all those going by car/train, should be brilliant.

1-1, FG 17 mins.

Well, I’ve been saying all season that this is where our season takes a turn for the worse and here we stand, 90 minutes from glory. It can’t turn for the worse now as this is the final game but it could still go against us. Whatever happens this squad & backroom staff deserve a rousing reception at the end.

I’m going to stick with my doom & gloom outlook - Jags 2 Livi 0 fg 18 mins

Well it won't be long now until the biggest game involving Livi for years is upon us and I would consider our chances of making it to the PL as 50:50.
The Jags are not a great side which is why they are in the playoffs but I cannot believe that they could be as insipid and rank as they were on Thursday night and that does bother me a fair bit. However this Livi team never knows when its beaten and I can see the game going all the way to ET and possibly even penalties.

It'll be a nail biter but regardless of the outcome the team deserve nothing but praise for what it has achieved this season and I'm pretty sure the fans will ensure that happens tomorrow.

Sleep well Livi fans.

I watched my recording of the 1-1 home leg with United today; pundits including Sutton must have learned something from the 3-2 game because they were all a lot more complementary about our style.


At half time they were praising United for getting back into it & had them as the better side but at full time they had us as by far the better side in the second half & thoroughly deserving of our place in the final. Jack Ross was there again, Stuart Lovell & Ally McCoist. Ally of course was the Talk Sport host that interviewed Hoppy a few weeks back & has been singing his & our praises for the work that has been done on the low budget.


And yet we still managed to outplay Thistle.


We will see if they have learned from that but good luck to our team & here's hoping you can give everything one more time.... as Hoppy says, there is no pressure - go out there and enjoy yourselves & give it everything you've got. If we don't go up, its still been a magnificent season.

On the positive side I think its pretty certain we'll score at least one goal; their defence is a shambles and has been for some time.

I don't think Thistle have managed to score more than one goal in any game since January

Finally by all accounts many of the team are already in talks with other teams about a prospective transfer; I'm not sure these rats leaving a sinking ship are going to pull out all the stops and possibly risk injury to give Thistle a chance.

On the negative side can we really account for the referee; the last few games in particular have been particularly bizarre. My nightmare is going to be having a player sent off in the first half and yet Thistle not even picking up a card. In the Dundee game last year, where we won 2-0, Beaton booked three Livi players but not one United one despite some fairly heafty challenges on the likes of Danny Mullin,

Interesting you should mention thinking we might get a player sent off. I was thinking the same. It's about all that hasn't been done to us by the whistlers in the play off games so far. Beaton refereed our last game at St Mirren 's ground and gave numerous fouls against us every time Danny Mullen went down. Funny that!

I'm hoping that because it's on tv the ref will have to at least try and get things right but Mohsni got away with as blatant a hand ball as you could get in full view of the BT sport cameras so that theory hasn't much hope.

I woke up early this morning, raring to go now, this feels like our CIS cup final day, hope the result is as good. As much as we all say it has been a phenomenal season and the players have done us proud, it will be a right scunner if we don't win promotion now, they really deserve it and it would be the only fitting reward for all their hard work.

Not just right in front of the cameras, it was right in the ref’s line of vision too.

Then there was the offside against Rafa - he neatly lobbed the keeper after the whistle & if it hadn’t been flagged it would have been a goal - I said at the time that the ball was in flight long before Rafa went past the last defender & TV proved me right, ridiculously wrong decision.

On the other hand Jacko clattered Ralston when United didn’t put the ball out after Rafa’s injury finally proved to be too much; United didn’t get a foul; seeing it live I didn’t think too much about it, seeing it on TV Jacko was lucky not to get carded & it could easily have been red.

One thing for sure is the ref today will make at least 1 decision that enrages the fans - because the standard of refereeing in Scotland is incredibly poor.

LF don’t be scunnered if we don’t go up... even you didn’t expect this.

See if Hoppy and our players were all on contracts to stay next season I wouldn't be too bothered if we lose it today. However I fear the worst if we do.