Premiership Play Off Final v Partick Th

Bertie we've come too far to fail now, it'll be a major downer if we lose today and don't get promoted, that's nothing to do with the players, they've given it everything and got us a lot further than anyone expected, but we're so close now I can't help but feel gutted if we don't do it. Going to be walking on air if we do though, can't wait for this game and really hoping we do it.

Haven't seen anything from Partick to suggest we can't beat them again either, Utd were a better looking team than them, like everyone else though, feeling a bit apprehensive in case they somehow were hiding how much better they are, nah, we wont allow them to be better. Mon the Lions.

orco wrote: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.

Fear not Orco... we’ve only gone and done it!!!!!!!! LF - it wouldn’t have been a fail in my book but it’s irrelevant now anyway!!!!!! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssssssssss!!!!!!

Super Livi, we’re on our way.... unbelievable, I don’t how they kept going cause I’m knackered.

Absolutely delighted for Keags, not just for scoring the only goal of the game but also for the lows he had to endure & so fitting that - in a season which started and ended against Thistle - he should score the first & last Livi goals of the season.

It wasn’t a game for the purists today but the boys worked their knackers off yet again, scored a great goal & saved a penalty into the bargain...yet another game where the officials did their best to help the opposition, how Elliot didn’t see red is beyond me & a fair few others should have been booked but got off with it.

Fantastic season with a fantastic ending. I honestly thought I’d never see us get back to the top tier but we’re not just on our way...we’re there.

Bertie Bassett wrote:

orco wrote: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.

Fear not Orco... we’ve only gone and done it!!!!!!!!   LF - it wouldn’t have been a fail in my book but it’s irrelevant now anyway!!!!!! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssssssssss!!!!!!

Super Livi, we’re on our way.... unbelievable, I don’t how they kept going cause I’m knackered.

Absolutely delighted for Keags, not just for scoring the only goal of the game but also for the lows he had to endure & so fitting that - in a season which started and ended against Thistle - he should score the first & last Livi goals of the season.

It wasn’t a game for the purists today but the boys worked their knackers off yet again, scored a great goal & saved a penalty into the bargain...yet another game where the officials did their best to help the opposition, how Elliot didn’t see red is beyond me & a fair few others should have been booked but got off with it.

Fantastic season with a fantastic ending. I honestly thought I’d never see us get back to the top tier but we’re not just on our way...we’re there.

Thought todays ref was ok... definitely the best we've had in the playoffs...except for booking Thompson for a head knock I didn't notice any huge errors

The one you mentioned, Elliot repeatedly fouling after his yellow & assaulting Cadden off the ball. Various other heavy fouls that the perpetrator didn’t get carded for. Apart from that I’d agree he was the best ref in the play offs but that wasn’t exactly difficult as the others were worse than useless.

All immaterial now, we did it against all odds

One of the happiest days I've had in following OUR CLUB. Sheer blood and guts and determination got us our place on the PL.
Everyone of those guys out on that pitch today deserve nothing but plaudits for their performances over this season.
To those that continue to disparage this club (and I see they've already started). GIRFUY.

To the regular fans take a bow and enjoy this moment. To those that turned up for the playoffs, come back next season.

I'm a happy chappy tonight

Oh my, we've only gone and done it.

Is it real? I was there, I saw it happen, I heard them talk about it on the radio, I saw the highlights on Sportscene, I’ve seen people posting on here & been posting myself, I saw the Sky Sports News ticker tape say it, friends have messaged me with congratulatory comments & now this photo of Hoppy with the we are going up banner... but it’s Monday morning & I need to know if it is real.

It was amazing the first time but that was financed (badly as it turned out) but this? It just shouldn’t be possible.

Our town, our team, Livingston FC .... in the Premiership!

Bertie Bassett wrote:Is it real? I was there, I saw it happen, I heard them talk about it on the radio, I saw the highlights on Sportscene, I’ve seen people posting on here & been posting myself, I saw the Sky Sports News ticker tape say it, friends have messaged me with congratulatory comments & now this photo of Hoppy with the we are going up banner... but it’s Monday morning & I need to know if it is real.

It was amazing the first time but that was financed (badly as it turned out) but this? It just shouldn’t be possible.

Our town, our team, Livingston FC .... in the Premiership!

Its real - I think - unless I was dreaming it.

Maybe this is a dream?

Really should be a trophy for the Championship team winning this, bit silly having one if the 11th placed Premiership won the final as not much of an accomplishment finishing 11th and managing to stay up in a 2nd chance saloon they perhaps shouldn't be involved in in the first place, but to get 2nd place and then win through 4 play off games, that def feels like it should be rewarded with a presentation of a trophy, something other than just posing for pictures and getting a banner handed to you.

But what a season, pure magical.

Bet our players are pinching themselves too this morning, is it real, did we really just win promotion to the Premiership, oya fecker!!!

Quite remarkable, that's us having a different league to play in and different grounds to visit 3 season's running, what wonderful variety Livi gives you, life is rarely dull supporting Livi, just incredible it really is.

I'm still finding it hard to believe what we've only just gone and done!

We are definitely the Leicester of Scottish football today. If we can persuade Hoppy and the core of our team to stay we will be a nuisance to all the prima donna teams in the league. As we saw with both United and Thistle, knowing how we play does not really prepare teams for actually playing against us.

It was my birthday yesterday. If Carlsberg did birthdays!!

This team has proved me wrong all season and they done it once again yesterday. I was waiting for the corner to turn where our form would drop but it hasn't and I couldn't have been more wrong!

This team surely has to go down as one of the greatest we've produced so far in our short history. In terms of what has been achieved with resources available, it is certainly up there with the 01/02 season and League Cup winning teams.

Liviforever wrote:Really should be a trophy for the Championship team winning this, bit silly having one if the 11th placed Premiership won the final as not much of an accomplishment finishing 11th and managing to stay up in a 2nd chance saloon they perhaps shouldn't be involved in in the first place, but to get 2nd place and then win through 4 play off games, that def feels like it should be rewarded with a presentation of a trophy, something other than just posing for pictures and getting a banner handed to you.

But what a season, pure magical.

Bet our players are pinching themselves too this morning, is it real, did we really just win promotion to the Premiership, oya fecker!!!

Quite remarkable, that's us having a different league to play in and different grounds to visit 3 season's running, what wonderful variety Livi gives you, life is rarely dull supporting Livi, just incredible it really is.

Thank you Liviforever; you just saved me going to the trouble of typing that all out.

Now the questions start; how many players can we sign up for next year; should we start looking at two year contracts rather than our standard one year?

Will Hopkins sign a long deal with us?

Sorry - still a bit of a blubbering wreck at the moment........

orco wrote:I'm still finding it hard to believe what we've only just gone and done!

We are definitely the Leicester of Scottish football today. If we can persuade Hoppy and the core of our team to stay we will be a nuisance to all the prima donna teams in the league. As we saw with both United and Thistle, knowing how we play does not really prepare teams for actually playing against us.

It was my birthday yesterday. If Carlsberg did birthdays!!

Happy Birthday Orco; what a fantastic birthday present.

Jesus what a day yesterday.Feeling drained and rough as hell but loved every bit of it.The players knew what they had to do and boy did they deliver to a man.The scenes at the end will live long in the memory and a massive well done to our magnificent travelling support for making the effort to get there.The Almondvale suite was absolutely bouncing last night as you would expect and the players really let their hair down.Congrats to Halkett and Lithgow for their awards,worthy recipients.All in all a memorable day that i was so proud to have been just a wee part of and cant wait for the fixture list to come out next month.Now wheres that paracetemol.

Actually last time we got promoted the club put together "History in the Making" video tape (remember them).

Come to think of it I think the tape was released after the first season but nevertheless I wonder if it would be worth having another go; with player and staff interviews; excerpts from the covered matches etc.

I wonder if its something RogerThatProduction would be prepared to take on?

Oooh the irony from Mr Carson:

Callum Carson wrote:So promotion means that Livingston will field a Colts team in the IRN-BRU Cup next season....

Yeah that would be pretty funny, Utd, Dunfermline or Falkirk having to play Livingston fc colts in the irb-bru cup games. Can you imagine the seethe.

Well it's official now and not a dream, we're a Premiership team and will be playing in the big boy's league, I've now changed my P&B forum page and BBC website page to PREMIERSHIP in my favourites, and binned the Championship ones.

Hoppy is on record as only wanting 1 year deals for himself so as not to cost the club a massive payout in the event of termination.

Bertie Bassett wrote:Hoppy is on record as only wanting 1 year deals for himself so as not to cost the club a massive payout in the event of termination.

Also said all the players know they've been offered contracts for next season*, and he wont be breaking the bank to stay up. He'll build a squad to be competitive and also be in good shape if we go back down to the Championship. Just be looking to do the same again really, get a few older experienced players for Premiership level who are hungry to prove themselves, and young hungry players with ambition. That formula has served him well so far, no reason it can't work again at Premiership level.

Sensible thing to do too, make us hard to play against so teams wont enjoy playing us, and that we wont be a Brechin, but have a back up plan of having a team quite capable to challenge for the play offs again if we go back down, we wont be going down a shambles and having to rebuild, Hoppy is looking for long term stability as well as competitiveness.

I reckon it will be the same again for us, we'll give established Premiership teams a shock, they'll think we'll be easy pickings, i'm looking forward to next season under Hoppy already (just need news tomorrow of him signing a new one year deal).

I also think loan players again could be vital, that's where we could get some real quality for the budget we have. Wouldn't mind Frizzell getting another loan deal to have a chance to show what he can do, and Hardie from Sevco again if they extend his contract.

*I think that has been the key to our play off success, a lot of teams go up and punt most of their players that got them there, thinking they wont be good enough, what incentive does that give them in a play off situation though, doubt they'd put in the commitment ours did knowing they're doing it for someone else taking their shirt.

Yeah, that was good news too... I think the guys who win promotion deserve a crack at it augmented by some experienced signings. Guys who were here on loan but whose parent club contract is up might also like to stay knowing they have a chance of playing most weeks.

So today's the day; Hopkins has his meeting with the board to discuss the future.

My guess is that if they offer him an increased budget in line with the increased revenue playing in the Premiership he'll stay and persuade many of the key team members to do likewise.

Alternatively if the club offer little in the way of an increase then, Hopkins is an ambitious man; he wants to continue to build; he's not going to be happy with stagnating and being the whipping boys.

The club may be keen to pay off the remaining debt owed to the previous board but this needs to e tempered with the significant increased earnings potential (and, in my opinion, increase season ticket sales) if Hopkins stays and manages to keep us in the Premiership.

Other than the increased match-day revenue, and sponsorship, the prize money alone for finishing 12 is double that of winning the Championship; with tenth place being noticeably higher.

If Hopkins does stay then he'll need to secure a number of contracts for our key out of contract players. Personally I'd recommend at least a two year contract; even if we end up going for the drop the parachute payment should compensate for that.

For the record I dont think Morton have replace Duffy as yet; that would be unusual with the trasfer window approaching... unless they already had their eyes on someone.

Hopefully we're looking at players like Hardie (if as predicted he gets released by the Rangers) and Thompson although I'm not sure if we'll be able to match what they were on. I must admit I wasnt a fan of Thompson throughout much of the second part of the season but in the last few games he's really upped it and shown what he can do. Penrice unfortunately will likely be out of our grasp; he has a year left on his contract with Partick Thistle so they will likely ask for something outlandish like £300k transfer fee.

The squad size will need to increase by at least 25%; a number of the premiership sides pitches are significantly larger than those in the championship; that will all take its toll.

I was wondering whether it was worth looking again at Todorov now that he's a free agent; he was a good utility player; certainly not premiership quality but always gave 100% and I don't think anyone could question his commitment. Even if he spent most of the season sitting on the bench he would be better than turning out without a full compliment of subs again.

Hopefully come 5 pm we'll have an announcement that Hopkins has agreed to a new contract; I'm guessing it will only be a year not for any reason like saving the club from liability but more to ensure that any promises of funds being made available are actually honoured. Some promises may be based on things like season ticket sales which of course wont become clear for maybe another two months.

If you offer 2 year deals just put in a relegation clause, where players take a wage drop going down a league. I'm sure our players had that in recent deals anyway, after we dropped down to League One and came back up to the Championship. It works both ways and they got an increase with promotions.

Scott P, Rafa and Lithgow all signed up recently, pretty sure they'd have got that put in their deal before doing so with us having a chance of going up through the play offs.

Liviforever wrote:Massive boost for us, that's who we were wanting to play, and we'll take a shit load of fans through on Sunday. It'll be our biggest away support of the season.

Doolan is a threat, same as McDonald was for Utd, apart from him i'm not too worried. Do you know they haven't got a goal scorer in the list of top 24 Premiership scorers, I think every other team has at least one player listed.
I'm more concerned we get everyone through the home game ok and have a full strength team for Sunday, nothing we can do about that though, just have to go about our business as usual and the rest will take care of itself.

Would be good if we got a decent ref for a change, and any penalty decisions we're due would actually get awarded.

Boy did we ever, took even me by surprise how many went through, about double our average home att this season.

Just seen a tweet reminding us that Livingston got out of the Championship twice as fast as The rangers and three times as fast as Hibs.

Piece of pish really, dunno what all the fuss is about with Sevco, Hibs, Utd etc struggling to get out of it.