Livi v Sevco (Betfred Cup)

Looking forward to this game, despite the scales of justice weighing heavily in Sevco's favour refereeing wise, I still fancy our chances here, really hope Morelos gets himself all wound up and sent off too, the diving wee cheat.

Big Dykes was a handful for them in the last game, same again from him, and he's had a wee rest at the weekend so should be raring to go. Don't think Bartley will be playing with a broken finger on the mend, so prob see Lawson starting, everyone else should be good to go though.

Mon the Lions, lets do them.

Liviforever wrote:Looking forward to this game, despite the scales of justice weighing heavily in Sevco's favour refereeing wise, I still fancy our chances here, really hope Morelos gets himself all wound up and sent off too, the diving wee cheat.

Big Dykes was a handful for them in the last game, same again from him, and he's had a wee rest at the weekend so should be raring to go. Don't think Bartley will be playing with a broken finger on the mend, so prob see Lawson starting, everyone else should be good to go though.

Mon the Lions, lets do them.

It depends on what kind of break; a crack should be easy enough; they just tape it another finger - a full break will need to be in proper plaster cast which will probably mean he's out for a few weeks.

Must admit im not particulary looking forward to this game albeit il be there to give the Lions my support.Ijust feel that unlike ourselves The Rangers are so strong offenseivly and will want to get to the semi as much as we do.Hearing that Gerrard will not be making many changes if any from the weekend which doesnt bode to well for us.Team selection and whos avialable will be vital for us i feel as i reckon frustrations the name of the game tommorow night.Any chances that may fall to us are going to have to go our way unlike Saturday.Would be great if Lithgow Pitman and Dykes were back for this one,would certainly give us a wee boost.Main thing for me is not to concede an early goal as it would make for a long night for the lads.Any way as usual i wish Gary and the boys the best of luck,we are gonna need it here.Lol T.

Bartley starting is good news, surprised Robinson has dropped to the bench for Souda though, interesting given how attacking Sevco will be.

Bearen by a deflected shot, looked like Sarkic had it covered too, pisser.

Another game where we had a decent amount of chances, Keaghan pulling one wide of the post, Dykes with that one on one he lobbed over McGregor, and the bar, and Souda ran onto a couple of through balls too, just couldn't get it in the blooming net. Gallant effort from the Lions but no cigar.

Also thought Sarkic pulled of some excellent saves, and the goal wasn't his fault. And Crawford ran his arse off all game chasing down balls, both were very impressive.

Watched on BT tonight, I thought we deserved more than we got again.

Helander should have been off for his first half foul on Dykes & we didn’t even get the free kick!

They would argue Lamie should have been off for his elbow but Lamie is only focused on the ball & his arms are up to help him jump; the lad actually jumps into his arm rather than the arm being thrown at him.

Gerard interview on Sky was reasonably fair until someone mentioned Holt’s take on Helander - Gerrard had said it could have been given as a red but just as easily could have gone as it did - after hearing that Holt thought they got away with one, Gerard said “That’s interesting” asked if by that he meant his side were on the receiving end of some heavy tackles he said “Don’t take me there” - so now I say shut up Stevie G ya big greetin bairn. It’s a physical game & your mob have been amongst the most physical teams out there. You were no shrinking violet yourself. If you want us to stand back & give you freedom to do what you want he can away & bile yer heid.

Big game for us on Saturday, if we can beat Accies we can open up a decent gap to the bottom end of the league.

I'll give Gerrard "heavy tackles". Rangers are a shower of diving shites. Morales collapses every time he is beaten to a ball and inevitably gets the free kick. I wonder if Gerrard noticed Ryan Jack petulantly kicking out at Bartley near the corner flag in the first half. Seems like the ref or his assistant didn't either. We had good shouts for a penalty and Dykes was taken out as last man.

I love watching the effort this team puts in. Hopefully we can find the goals soon.

Finally I have to say, having seen Sarkic in a few early Betfred games and that one tonight I prefer him to Stewart. His performance v Rangers should earn him his place in the next game.

Aye, the Jack kick was right in front of the Lino, if he didn’t see it he should go have a word with the refs sponsors. That should have been a red card, it wasn’t just a loose swing of the leg, it was a deliberate kick out, it was worse than Beckham on the Argentinian at that World Cup match years ago.

The ref last night didn’t anger me like Walsh did on Saturday but he still got some big decisions wrong.
Didn’t think Crawford was a pen but I’m sure it would have been had it been a blue shirt going down. I am convinced I saw a handball in the box with the hands above the head preventing Lamie getting a clean header as he tried to head a free kick across goal but it was never shown in a replay. It would have been too close for him to get his hand out the way but it was an unnatural position more akin to a keeper. And of course Helander as well as Jack should have been off.

Well what can I say; firstly despite losing I should stress that I was as proud as punch for the team last night. Everyone pulled their weight and stood up to be counted. Some outperformed themselves others were simply a revelation.

In particular Crawford, so often in the past been the weak link in the midfield, was truly excellent - what he lacked in skill he made up in effort and true bl00dy mindedness.

Sarkic was impressive; if he can keep up that form he's easily ahead of Steward.

Souda must have been a nightmare to play against; never stopped the entire game and seemed pretty gutted to be taken off late although he was clearly flagging.

It was probably also Dykes' best game for us; at times he was pretty much unplayable and needed tow defenders on him constantly. It amazes me that for such a tall guy he has such an impressive turn of speed.

Lamie played his heart out as usual but it was easy to see he was struggling particularly in the second half. That being said Pepe didn't disgrace himself when he came on either; did what he needed to do and did it well.

Bartley - well all I can say is why the hell did Hibs let him go. the boy is immense; covered every blade of grass twice and controlled things.

Now the question is once Pittman's fit who does he replace? Probably Jacobs but likewise he was also all over the place; pulling off critical tackles; steeling the ball midfield etc.

Also amazed how well Guthrie's settled in - seems like he's been playing for us forever.

Although I've singled out some players here I think they all stepped up last night. Difficult to know what would have happened with a half competent referee though but then again this is Scottish football.

If we can keep that level of performance up the rest of the season will be a breeze - of course we wont; injuries, suspensions and tiredness will take their toll but I can dream for a moment.

Only player I was disappointed in was Devlin, I've praised him before, and thought he could be our best signing this season, usually he's Mr reliable in defence and never takes chances, but last night he was missing balls up front and shaky in defence.

Pittman is our best midfielder, for me he's 1st name on the team sheet, isn't just his work rate, closing down players and harrying them to force mistakes, he's the one player that can get us goals above all the rest of our midfield, and we're really struggling to score just now.

Keaghan blows hot and cold, so i'd prob put Pittman in ahead of him just now, but even though Crawford was fantastic, i'd still put Pittman in ahead of him too.

Saying all that, you can't just throw a player back in after missing a few weeks being out injured, if he's back training and nearing a return, he should get 25 mins or so against Accies on Sat and take it from there.

I've given up being annoyed at the decisions that don't go our way in games against Sevco, we all know pre match we'll get the shite end of the stick when it comes to refereeing decisions, the fact we kept 11 men on the pitch this time was a bonus, after Dykes booking and the way he competes against 2 defenders all game, I was expecting to see another yellow card being flashed his way. Surprised Lamie wasn't sent off too, not because he deserved to be, just that it would've been enough to give the ref an excuse to do so.

Just surprised Slippy didn't mention the pitch in his post match interview, thought it was funny how he was all wound up about Holt's comments, when Holt was absolutely correct in what he was saying.

Smart move by Livi offering Dykes an extended contract this early in the season, he's going to be on a lot of clubs radar now after our two games against Sevco, esp last night's game being shown live on BT sport.

I agree Devlin perhaps wasn't as good as previously but possibly that was heightened by the leap in performance by so many of his teammates. Going forward he was still pretty good but did seem to leave bigger gaps at the back during the last 15 minutes or so. That being said he was almost dead on his feet by then.

Was thinking about Dykes extension; there will be loads of clubs after him come the winter transfer window; certainly the Edinburgh two plus others. Really need to be able to keep hold of him. My only concern is the number of yellow cards he seems to pick up (justified or not).

I doubt the Edin clubs could afford him, unless we were silly enough to take a low offer.

Liviforever wrote:I doubt the Edin clubs could afford him, unless we were silly enough to take a low offer.

I thought Hibs have a new American millionaire owner (Ronald Gordon I think) who's already paid off their £3 million mortgage in cash

Ann Budge is worth an estimated £30 million although I'm not sure how much of that is actually real cash.

EDIT - that being said we all know these clubs will come in with some silly offer such as £15k and some tickets to the Edinburgh fringe. Fortunately Massone's not around else it would be a deal.

Durnford wrote:

Liviforever wrote:I doubt the Edin clubs could afford him, unless we were silly enough to take a low offer.

I thought Hibs have a new American millionaire owner (Ronald Gordon I think) who's already paid off their £3 million mortgage in cash

Ann Budge is worth an estimated £30 million although I'm not sure how much of that is actually real cash.

EDIT - that being said we all know these clubs will come in with some silly offer such as £15k and some tickets to the Edinburgh fringe. Fortunately Massone's not around else it would be a deal.

When was the last time Hibs paid over 1M for a player, or even close to it, we've got him on a 3 year contract, he wont be going cheap. I think we've outpriced the other Premiership clubs outside Celtic and Sevco by extending his contract another year.

Sorry for the late post guys,just about got over last night.Where to start.Firstly i thought the players litterally ran themselves into the ground last night and for that alone they should be extremely proud of their combined efforts.Dykes was magnificent and showed how much we missed him last Saturday and where Devlin and Crawford got the energy from to keep at them for the whole game is beyond me.The two main incidents of note being Lamies challenge on Aribo whwich i didnt see in real time but looked a sore one although Steven Gerrard said he wasnt to blame afterwards.And dylan getting hacked down when clearly through on goal and nothing givin was excrusiating to watch and i told Orco so after bumping into her at half time.I said pre match that i was most worried about conceding an early goal albeit from a massive deflection that our goalie looked to have covered otherwise.Big shout out to him for keeping us in game.We of course had numerous chances ourselves but alas failed to take any of them unfortunatly.Would have been a vastly different game had one of those gone in.Was great to see the Stadium so full again and on a brighter note hope the club made a few bob from them.All in all a frtustrating night and on another night might have been a little more fortious for us.But well done to the lads for ging it a real go,we gave them a game.

We're being vilified in the media because they've swallowed Gerrards guff about Lamie, read the Herald article that had a headline 'are Livi the dirtiest team in the Premiership', away and fuck yerself with that shite, what a lot of absolute guff.

They actually stuck up a card count from last season and turns out Livi had the 3rd lowest yellow cards, with Sevco above us, and Morelos had more reds than our whole team put together. Maybe they should've finished up asking if Sevco were the dirtiest team in the Premiership, because they got away with 2 reds on Wed against us and they'll have got away with a lot last season too, but are still above us on cards.

This shite could follow us the same as the shite about us being agricultural and hoofball merchants did for most of the last 2 seasons. And i'd say it could have an effect on referees focussing on us, esp in the next game against Sevco, they'll be just looking to book Livi players in games now.

I remember when I used to like Gerrard. He's a whining wee git now. I've looked at that incident. The Rangers guy went for the ball and smashed his face into Lamie's arm. There was absolutely no intent on the part of Lamie. The fact that the guy needed stitches is unfortunate. I got four stitches in a decent sized gash on my hand a few months ago so half the guys face must have been wide open for 20 stitches.
Somebody needs to tell Gerrard it's no that Riverdance Irish dancing he's watching.

Great player but lost any respect for him when he took that job. Not that he’ll lose any sleep over that. But he ought to look in the mirror & get his own house in order before having a dig at the opposition.

Just proves that they don’t like it up ‘em. If we could just put the ball in the net we’d have wiped the floor with them.

His assistant is contradicting him, Gary McAllister said he agreed with Holt that Helander was fortunate not to get a red card, and didn't think Lamie should've had a red. Gerrard needs take some lessons on how to conduct himself from McAllister.

Yeah, Gary McAllister was another Liverpool legend & Leeds legend for that matter. Very honest, unemotional review of the game. Whereas Gerrard came across as a wee bairn.