Livi v Raith (Scottish Cup)

Home game against a League One team where we'd have been pretty confident of getting through to the next round had this come just after our win against Hibs, however we've been on a 3 week Winter break, and our form returning from International breaks and the Winter break isn't good, so this is by no means a racing certainty that we'll get past Raith.

Hopefully we'll have no upsets and put in a professional job pushing aside Raith and going on a much longed for Scottish cup run. Finishing in the top 6 and getting to at least the semi finals and a trip to Hampden would make this a fandabbydosey season.

Potential banana skin here if we don't take them seriously enough. The cup is a whole new ball game ( ) and is littered with wee team v big team upsets.

If we weren't playing at home i'd be really worried. Main concern is our players not being acclimatized enough after being away from the pish weather we've been having in Livingston.

So what will be our starting XI for this game, Stewart or Schofield in goals?

Lithgow looks like he'll be out again, so prob Lawson-Guthrie-Lamie-McMillan in our back 4, unless Brown gets a start, if he does then I hope it's as a CB and not LB.

Can see a holding midfield of Marv & Crawford, allowing an attacking mid 3 of Lawless-Pittman-Robbo, with Dykes up front.

Like Orco earlier in the week i feel this has the potential to be a banana skin for us if we are not at the top of our game.Its a cup tie and im sure Mcglyne will have them up for this.Having said that we are at home and il be surprised if we are not in the draw for the next round come 4.45.Yes they are at the top of their league but ive noticed consistency isnt their best quality with so many teams breathing down their necks.Ithink like us their priorites lie else where this season but im sure its gonna be an old fashioned cup tie and one i am really looking forward to after what seems an eternity since our last game.As always i wish Gary and the lads all the best and please no replays.

1 foot on the banana skin

Rank awful first half. Raith deserve their lead

Well, we got out of jail IMO; that was a shockingly poor performance but we are thru.

As I posted at half time I thought Rovers were worth their lead; I didn’t think it was offside as our back line was slow in coming out & I am convinced that the ball was on its way before the last defender was out leaving Baird unmarked & onside.

Second half Rovers dug in but played some good football (can’t believe McGlynn has them playing such good stuff) but I thought some of their players were beginning to tire just before our equaliser.

I didn’t see a handball but was absolutely raging that our guys stood claiming it while the ball was available to recycle & I still didn’t believe the ref had given it until the Rovers players surrounded him.
Well taken by Lawless. Within seconds of the restart Robinson nicked the ball & fed Dykes who finished superbly & the momentum was suddenly with us. A complete travesty IMO because we hadn’t fashioned a proper shot on goal until the pen - tell a lie, the keeper did make 1 save in the 1st half but it was an easy one. Good pass from Robbo again to Erskine to get fouled for the second pen & another well taken spot kick from Lawless.

Neither of the new boys gave me any sign that they are better than what we already have at the club.

I couldn’t pick a MotM today but not because they were any good. Sibbald was probably our best player until he went off but was too ponderous. Pittman worked as hard as ever but really needs to rediscover his finishing ability. Lawless looked lethargic. Bartley looked slow. Souda had some flashes but not enough. Lawson looked cold. Guthrie looked hesitant. Lamie had good phases & rank phases. Brown was too slow to move things forward. Dykes scored a fine goal but was dominated by the Rovers defence. Schofield was also too slow to get things moving & could barely clear the half way line with his kicks.

All 3 subs were more effective than the starting xi

Dunno what you saw Raith doing that they deserved their HT lead Bertie, they came for a draw and were somehow 1-0 up in the first half with their one and only corner & shot at our goal. Pretty pish from us but Raith weren't any great shakes either, and scored against the run of play.

2nd half they set out to defend deep and hit us on the counter, which they did comfortably. We were far too slow in our build up play, was like watching a John Hughes Livi team, also thought Schofield needed to try the odd punt up to Dykes like Sarkic used to do, instead he persisted with passing it out from the back, which gave Rovers the time to get back into defensive formation.

Frustrating to watch, as was Raith's time wasting (can't really blame them though), but Robbo coming on injected a bit of organisation and urgency into our attack, and once the pen went in I could only see us winning it. Harsh on Raith to lose another goal with another pen, they were comfortably holding onto their slim lead up till our equaliser, and their game plan had been working well. But they were no way the better team, in that they offered even less of a goal threat than us, Schofield had next to nothing to do in the way of making saves. Wee Stevie Lawless is a cool as feck penalty taker too, always feel confident he'll stick them away.

Btw I joked at HT that we'd score 3 goals in the 2nd half, couldn't believe it when we did.

I saw Raith passing & moving far better than we were. I saw them dealing comfortably with everything we tried. They were untroubled by us regardless of our dominance of possession. I saw them take the chance they created. I didn’t say they played particularly well but they had a game plan that was working until the 77th minute. I also saw them visibly tire just before we got back into the game.

I also saw us visibly look like we were a beaten side at half time.
I saw us have pointless possession with lots of passing going nowhere.
On a positive note I saw us finish the game strongly in terms of effort & I saw us capitalise as Rovers tired.

On a separate note, I seriously question the purpose of warm weather training when we are playing in winter. Train in the cold & get acclimatised to it.

Passing and moving where, they had 1 shot the whole game, not just one shot on target, that was their only shot period. And only 2 corners.

2nd half i'd agree with you but def not the 1st half, we were by far the better team then, and their goal was against the run of play. Haven't seen any Raith fans posting they were better in the first half either. Once they scored it was always going to be a very tough task to break them down, but when we equalised I knew we'd win, they just weren't anywhere near good enough to beat us having a go.
Dykes quick goal stopped them from recovering enough to settle back into defensive mode to get the replay too.

Have to agree with Holt, on balance of play we merited the result. Although if I was a Raith fan i'd be gutted after holding out pretty comfortably for 77 mins. From our perspective it was just as gutting to be going out with their only shot at goal.

I posted elsewhere Liviforever that it was like watching a John Hughes team. I was frustrated and bored in equal measure.
We started well I thought and had some near misses. Raith then found their feet a little and got themselves ahead with their first shot on goal. The young goalie didn't fill me with confidence. I think Sarkic would have had that ball cleared before the shot was taken.
After that Livi seemed wracked with nerves and the safe passing started with nobody willing to take Raith on. Suited them down to the ground. Then the penalty. I thought with the way we were going it would be missed or saved. We'll done Stevie Lawless. Livi, for God's sake get him tied up before he signs a pre-contract somewhere else.
I'm going to be away next week so will miss the St Johnstone game. Not sure if my nerves could take it anyway. I think the guys will have to up their game and get out of holiday mode if they want the points.

Have to agree with other's comments about the John Hughes tippy tappy tactics. Incredibly frustrating to watch and more going backwards than forward. With the 70% possession in the first half we should have been at least five up by halftime but failed to capitalised.

Raith seemed to offer very little hardly managing three successive passes in the first half but we were well off our normal pace with some really baffling tactics.

Often we had both Souda and Lawless tracking back to defend but with Lawson and Lamie in an advanced position. If we've learned anything over the past 18 months surely its that Lawless is by far at his best playing up from continually closing down and harassing defenders.

As for Sibbald why was he being played as a defensive midfielder? He's far better in an advance position; if we wanted a defensive midfielder surely Jacobs would have been a far better choice?

Too many player were off their game today; even Bartley and Pittman barely scraped through. We're truly fortunate we were only playing a poor Raith side today. We need to really pull our socks up for Wednesday and the visit of St Johnstone.

In a way it was like the betfred cup group games at the start of the season, using a cup game against a lower league team to blow of the cobwebs and get ourselves up to speed for the serious stuff in the league. Although we really need to get back to how we've been playing the past 3 seasons and stop this slow methodical pish passing the ball along the back line and get it tae feck up the pitch pronto to Dykes. St Johnstone will pressure us hell of a lot more than Raith did, and will punish us a lot more too.

Have to say i thought it was harsh on Rovers but credit to the lads for keeping going and got there reward in the end.After a dreadfull first half from us was good to see the fighting spirit in the second against arguably a tiring rovers team.Thought Lamie was going to punch a hole in the home dugout frustrated as he was,not one of his better games.Great to see Lawless keep his composure with two well taken spot kicks.Any way we are in the next round so well done to the boys for that.As L/F says St Johnston wont be as hospitable as Rovers were but its another one im looking forward to,more on that one later.We move on.

Liviforever wrote:Passing and moving where, they had 1 shot the whole game, not just one shot on target, that was their only shot period. And only 2 corners.

2nd half i'd agree with you but def not the 1st half, we were by far the better team then, and their goal was against the run of play. Haven't seen any Raith fans posting they were better in the first half either. Once they scored it was always going to be a very tough task to break them down, but when we equalised I knew we'd win, they just weren't anywhere near good enough to beat us having a go.
Dykes quick goal stopped them from recovering enough to settle back into defensive mode to get the replay too.

Have to agree with Holt, on balance of play we merited the result. Although if I was a Raith fan i'd be gutted after holding out pretty comfortably for 77 mins. From our perspective it was just as gutting to be going out with their only shot at goal.

Again you are reading into what I’m saying, I didn’t say Raith were particularly good but they were matching if not bettering us, they didn’t create much but neither did we & we were the home team & the substantially higher ranked team & therefore should have been capable of better, but apart from some decent play in the first 10 mins & 2 efforts on target towards HT we did nothing dangerous, even the two saves their keeper made in the first half were easy for him. We were definitely not better by far in the first half & when Raith got their corner - which resulted from poor defending - I was expecting them to score because our defence hadn’t played together before, so I wasn’t surprised when they went ahead.

I agree with Orco, Sarkic would probably have dealt with the whole situation bette. Also agree that our ineffectual passing across the back line was painful to watch. I’m an advocate of keeping possession but not when you don’t actually do anything with it. If we play that way again on Wednesday, St J will beat us.

Furthermore, if we hadn’t gotten the first pen I honestly think we’d have lost 1-0, because we were not troubling Raith’s defence. Getting the second so quickly after equalising changed the dynamic & momentum of the game. in the end though it was a cup tie & we got through, just a shame that the only top tier side knocked out was Ross, so chances are we’ll get a tough tie next round.

I said before kick off that this was possibly a game to give the new boys a chance to settle in & see what they can do but neither filled me with any confidence.

Bertie Bassett wrote:

Liviforever wrote:Passing and moving where, they had 1 shot the whole game, not just one shot on target, that was their only shot period. And only 2 corners.

2nd half i'd agree with you but def not the 1st half, we were by far the better team then, and their goal was against the run of play. Haven't seen any Raith fans posting they were better in the first half either. Once they scored it was always going to be a very tough task to break them down, but when we equalised I knew we'd win, they just weren't anywhere near good enough to beat us having a go.
Dykes quick goal stopped them from recovering enough to settle back into defensive mode to get the replay too.

Have to agree with Holt, on balance of play we merited the result. Although if I was a Raith fan i'd be gutted after holding out pretty comfortably for 77 mins. From our perspective it was just as gutting to be going out with their only shot at goal.

Again you are reading into what I’m saying, I didn’t say Raith were particularly good but they were matching if not bettering us, they didn’t create much but neither did we & we were the home team & the substantially higher ranked team & therefore should have been capable of better, but apart from some decent play in the first 10 mins & 2 efforts on target towards HT we did nothing dangerous, even the two saves their keeper made in the first half were easy for him. We were definitely not better by far in the first half & when Raith got their corner - which resulted from poor defending - I was expecting them to score because our defence hadn’t played together before, so I wasn’t surprised when they went ahead.

I agree with Orco, Sarkic would probably have dealt with the whole situation bette. Also agree that our ineffectual passing across the back line was painful to watch. I’m an advocate of keeping possession but not when you don’t actually do anything with it. If we play that way again on Wednesday, St J will beat us.

Furthermore, if we hadn’t gotten the first pen I honestly think we’d have lost 1-0, because we were not troubling Raith’s defence. Getting the second so quickly after equalising changed the dynamic & momentum of the game. in the end though it was a cup tie & we got through, just a shame that the only top tier side knocked out was Ross, so chances are we’ll get a tough tie next round.

I said before kick off that this was possibly a game to give the new boys a chance to settle in & see what they can do but neither filled me with any confidence.

Their keeper still had more to deal with than ours, you're the only person I've seen (incl Raith fans) that think they were better than us in the first half, they just weren't, and didn't deserve their lead. You can say what you want about us being the home team and playing in a bigger league, but it's difficult to play against 10 men who have no interest in coming out of their half when they lose the ball, bigger teams than us struggle to score against that. They got a break with their only chance of the game, and went into even more park the bus mode, almost worked for them but I don't think they were anywhere near better than us, and we got a deserved win.

It's all guess work as to what would've happened had we not got the pen, we did get it though, and ended up sticking 3 past them. Imo wee Robbo has made a big difference coming on and we were looking more like scoring, obv the pen was a game changer driving us on though, and the players never gave up which was good.

ICT away in the next round, not ideal as i'd rather have got another home draw, but still very winnable.

You were watching with amber glasses if you think they defended the whole game & even if they had done they were entitled to as the underdog from two tiers down so why shouldn’t they? As you so often point out when we are accused of playing that way - even when we don’t - They weren’t there to make it easy.

Like I said earlier they had a game plan which was working. Also, have a look at the highlights, the build up play to win the corner that brought their goal was one of the best moves in the entire match by either team. Their keeper may have had more to do but nothing troubled him until the 1st penalty.

I may be a lone voice on the message boards (no idea, haven’t read any others but this) but everyone I sat with & spoke to & communicated with by text during the game shared my view of proceedings.

Surely you don’t think we played well yesterday? Even your optimism can’t stretch that far?

The biggest positive about yesterday was that we kept going & once we got level we went again to get the win.

And now it’s ICT away in the next round... another potential banana skin.

Oh...and if I had to nominate a MotM for us it would be Robbo despite him coming on so late; he definitely had a n impact that changed the game, so at least we agree on that.

No amber specs Bertie, we were pish, but Raith were pisher. About the only thing Schofield had to do all game was pick the ball out of his net from Raith's one shot of the match.

Anyways, least we agree on something, that wee Robbo made a difference for us, hope he starts against St Johnstone on Wed.