Livi v Annan (The Group Decider)

Who'd have thought the Annan game would've been the game of the group for us, we'll still need a positive result against Berwick but this is 1st v 2nd and our biggest game of the group stage.

Annan haven't conceded a goal yet, although playing against Accies last night I can see why, but we weren't much better in attack so will need to be playing 2 up front for this game and having someone getting on the end of L Miller's headers.

They've scored 5 goals as well, incl a goal to beat Accies, so we def can't take them lightly, they'll be full of confidence and fancying themselves for another upset in beating a Premiership team.

Fancy us to take all 3 points here, just go out and play to our strengths Livi.

Hmmm... group decider? I suppose in theory if they beat us they will be on 9 points but technically Airdrie could win their 3 remaining games, which would include beating Annan so they could still win the group. If we beat them we would go to 8 points and Annan or Airdrie could still get 9 - Berwick could actually beat us as they have “previous” for beating the original Rangers. So a wee bit presumptuous to call this the group decider.

The good news is that it’s only £10 to get in according to the Twitter feed on the OSC

Yeah but back on planet earth in the real world.

Being realistic this is the group decider, none of the other teams are good enough or in a position to get near first place. Airdrie are crap, Berwick are crapper, and Accies are 1 point from 2 games. If we win this game or even get the bonus point we should beat Berwick and finish top of the group, def need to improve on the Accies game to do that though, Annan wont be easy.

And England had the easy path to the WC Final...

Play the games as they come, don’t count your salmon before they are caught

Not counting anything, i'm saying it like it is.

Dunno what England has to do with anything, we've 5 teams in this group, us and Annan have shown ourselves to be the best two. Airdrie and Berwick are also rans, bottom 2, group will finish, Livi/Annan*, Accies, Airdrie, Berwick.

You put up your order and we'll see who's right.

*winner on Sat will decide in which order that will be for 1st and 2nd, should be us.

You are working out results in advance based on “shoulds” - like the pundits did for England at the WC - they had them in the final after 2 games in their group match. You’ve not gone that far but you have projected the 3rd group game of 4 as a decider based on “shoulds” - Accies should have beaten Annan but they lost. Airdrie should beat Berwick & Annan though & if they also surprise Accies...

However, that said, if results go they way they “should” then we should win on Saturday & against Berwick... job done.

No idea what formation we've actually been playing but I'd go back to our 3-5-2 for this, would also be tempted to play Stewart in goals for the remaining group games to see what he's like.


Gives us Cadden, Hamilton and Pittman on the bench if we need more attacking threat, or Saunders, Lamie and Crane if we need more cover at the back.

2-1 Livi.

Bertie Bassett wrote:You are working out results in advance based on “shoulds” - like the pundits did for England at the WC - they had them in the final after 2 games in their group match. You’ve not gone that far but you have projected the 3rd group game of 4 as a decider based on “shoulds” - Accies should have beaten Annan but they lost. Airdrie should beat Berwick & Annan though & if they also surprise Accies...

However, that said, if results go they way they “should” then we should win on Saturday & against Berwick... job done.

Nothing to do with should, after 2 games and seeing us play Airdrie and Accies i'm pretty confident us and Annan will be top two, in which order will be determined after Saturday. Oh and get yer prediction up if you think i'm wrong and stop your waffling.

LiviLion wrote:No idea what formation we've actually been playing but I'd go back to our 3-5-2 for this, would also be tempted to play Stewart in goals for the remaining group games to see what he's like.

Miller   -   Miller
Lamie   -   Byrne   -   Sibbald   -   Robinson   -   McMillan
Lithgow   -   Halkett   -   Gallagher
Stewart

Gives us Cadden, Hamilton and Pittman on the bench if we need more attacking threat, or Saunders, Lamie and Crane if we need more cover at the back.

2-1 Livi.

I'd like to see Sibbald start too but I wouldn't drop Pittman, him and Byrne are still our best midfielders, and after seeing Annan against Berwick highlights I think we'll need him. They like taking shots when they get an opening and they were pretty accurate with them. Ideally Pittman, Byrne, Robinson and Sibbald should play and Kenny Miller should be the one left out, if he isn't going to play up front linking with Lee Miller then he's effectively taking up a midfielders position and both Sibbald and Pittman are better than him playing in midfield.

In fact i'd play Robinson up front linking with L Miller or drop Robinson too and play Hamilton up front with L Miller.

..                             Kelly

..       Gallagher         Halkett              Lithgow

McMillan      Byrne    Pittman       Sibbald      Lamie

.     Hamilton /Robinson       L Miller

Liviforever wrote:

Bertie Bassett wrote:You are working out results in advance based on “shoulds” - like the pundits did for England at the WC - they had them in the final after 2 games in their group match. You’ve not gone that far but you have projected the 3rd group game of 4 as a decider based on “shoulds” - Accies should have beaten Annan but they lost. Airdrie should beat Berwick & Annan though & if they also surprise Accies...

However, that said, if results go they way they “should” then we should win on Saturday & against Berwick... job done.

Nothing to do with should, after 2 games and seeing us play Airdrie and Accies i'm pretty confident us and Annan will be top two, in which order will be determined after Saturday. Oh and get yer prediction up if you think i'm wrong and stop your waffling.

Of course it’s to do with should... you have seen a couple of games and based on what you have seen (facts of games played) you are anticipating what should happen (predictions of games still to be played), you may be proven correct but that doesn’t change the fact that you are anticipating what should happen. Unless of course you have a fully functional crystal ball or two?

I actually agree with your assessment of what SHOULD happen...but that doesn’t change the fact that what both of us think SHOULD happen, might not actually come to pass.

So it's a group decider then, you're agreeing with me, just a long winded way of getting around to admitting it. You're like the John Hughes of writing posts, why use one pass to get the ball up the pitch when you can use 40, why just write one post agreeing with me when you can...………….

Oh and i'm not basing anything on just seeing a couple of games, there are only 2 games to go and after this GROUP DECIDER there will be ONE, if Annan win they'll be on NINE points, naebody is catching them, if we win we'll be on 8 points with the easiest team in the group left to play. No even you could be that negative to think we wouldn't win that game, although I wouldn't bet on it right enough, you'd do it just to spite me.

I never like assumping (for the benefit of the pedants out there - I just made that word up)

So until it is aritmetically confirmed that we or anyone else has won the group... I’ll keep taking 1 game at a time...

I think that's a medical condition Bertie, you have to take a hefty dose of optimism to cure it.

Not to sure if Annan have been punching above their weight,guess we,ll find out tommorow,Hopefully our quality will take us to the top of this group and therefore put us in a strong possition to qualify comfortably.Be interesting to see if the new lad Kaja from Wimbledon gets a run out. he looks usefull from what ive seen and should be a usefull addition to the squad.Anyway good luck to the Lions tommorow and hopefully get the result we all want.

W2 D1 L3 is our record against them, both wins in West Lothian.

Interesting, I’d have thought they would have established themselves in the third tier by now but they always seem to miss out on going up.

Result for the Lions today albeit the woodwork seems to have been the winner today.Top of the group and should progress to the next stage.Still a lot of work methinks before the real stuff starts but nevertheless well done to the boys in what could have been a potential bannana skin for us.Wonder how the new pitch is coming along.Cant wait to get back home.Still feels like pre season.Bring it on and well done Livi!!!

Strange old atmosphere today. Result all that mattered really but the performance was largely poor.
Far to slow in the build up; proof of that seen in the fact the goal came from a long pass over the top & a composed finish from the Playnager. I liked the way Crane & Lamie play & Sibbald did a lot better in the second half. I'm in two minds about leaving Lithgow out though after his stellar season in the 2nd tier. Also thought Pitman was much less involved than usual; still managed a tremendous tackle to stop a break away attempt though.

We had enough chances & need to be more clinical & we also got away with a couple at the back.

Annan were not bad & their number 14 impressed me.

Might have been easier to play them on a bigger pitch

Annan played very deep with the old 2 banks of players at the back, and we really needed that early goal or it would've been really frustrating playing against their defensive set up. Pity we didn't get the 2nd to give us a comfortable and relaxing afternoon, the woodwork denied us twice and the lino's offside flag for another. Pretty much dominated it for 80 mins then almost got hit with a late goal twice in the closing minutes. Thankfully Kelly was in the right place and held it well.


Yeah Lithgow being left out doesn't feel right but can't fault Lamie, apart from the late red card he was solid and dependable all through the game, the red card sorts that out though and Lithgow should be back in against Berwick next Sat.


Also agree about the atmosphere, felt really sedate and very pre season friendly esque, enjoyed my trip to Linlithgow though and their social club pre match, looking forward to another good day out next week there, and hopefully a good few goals past Berwick for a more relaxing time watching the game.


Top of the group with the team that looks like the group whipping boys left to play, will be a real upset now if we don't qualify for the knockout stage.

That was a bit frustrating to watch. Annan made it difficult for us with their big players and a pressing game. I never felt comfortable after we scored because they always looked like they might do something with one of their breakaways. We needed a second to wrap the game up. The disallowed goal looked ok to me. Clancy gave us very little and booked Pittman for a challenge similar to many others throughout the game. The red card was probably justified since it looked to me like Lamie had challenged recklessly.

Gallagher looked a bit out of sorts to me. He didn't have one of his better games. I like the look of Sibbald. He has a good football brain and is skilled with the ball. Young Hamilton gave a good account of himself though he looked a bit raw at times.

We made it hard for ourselves at times, though if those hitting the woodwork had gone in and we had been given the disallowed goal it would have been a less anxious watch for me.

Actually thought Pittman got kicked after getting to the ball first, strange decision to book him. Gallagher was a bit slack with his passes at times, think it was him with the short pass back to Kelly after we scored that almost cost us, Kelly had to do a sliding tackle to block the Annan player running onto it.

Would like to see Hamilton linking up with Lee Miller next week, he'd get played in more and be able to get onto all Millers flick ons, mon to feck Kenny drop yourself mate and lets see how the two of them get on.

I didn’t see anything wrong with Hamilton’s goal either, thought he went past the defender after the pass. If that had stood we quite possibly would have run out comfortable winners.

Thought Pitts yellow was nonsense...along with a number of other decisions. Missed the red card incident but heard the crowd go “oooh” so assumed it was justified... think it was probably mistimed though as there wasn’t much niggle in the game.

Kenny needs to drop himself just to get a better picture of how we can play & see what the best combinations are. He has to do what is best for the team, not indulge himself.

Yeah Lamie went in a bit late and caught the boy a sore one, wasn't malicious but no complaints about it being red.

Their bench shouting get him off was a bit shit though, they were giving it 'haw' all game whenever our players won balls standing our ground and being stronger than them, bunch of tools.

Agree with their manager saying they felt they could've nicked a draw at the end but him saying that Livi taking a striker off for a CB showed they had us under pressure was a bit off the mark. We took Miller off for Lithgow cause we were down to 10 men and Lamie who's a CB was red carded. Personally i'd have made that substitution straight away but we hung on for another 4 minutes and made it in the 90th minute.

Highlights: https://vimeo.com/281103952

Not much in it for Hamilton's offside goal, looks offside and then comes back level and is still level when he gets the ball played to him, tight decision anyway, maybe needed half a yard just to make it obvious he's onside.


Miller talking about us needing to be more clinical and he missed the best chance of the game with that side footer off the post.

Where did you hear or read the managers’ comments?

Aye, Kenny should have buried that chance...but then he usually only gets 1 goal in 3 or 4. chances.

I think we might end up rueing the decision to part company with Hartson