Livi v Motherwell

Our home form is superb. so no reason we can't beat Motherwell here. it would be a great chance to get within touching distance of Aberdeen too, with them away to Sevco.

Tough game for us though, so everyone will need to be up to their usual standards at home, and get stuck in about them. Not sure if we'll be so flamboyant with our attacking selection, or bring in Keaghan/Crawford for a more combative midfield, Motherwell are one of the roughest teams I've seen us play against, we get the physical tag but i'll tell you, Motherwell are a lot worse, and usually get away with it, which is annoying. They can certainly dish it out despite Robinson always moaning it's us that are like that and stop his team playing their usual Samba esque football.

Robbo may be on from the start too, and it'll have nothing to do with Souda's strop at Accies, he's a far more combative player buzzing about hassling defenders. Although Souda always causes teams problems with his direct play, so either way we'll cause them problems.

Absolutely buzzing for this game, bring it on.

Would probably agree about Robinson starting; not sure if Gallagher still plays rightback or whether he's now in the centre but I suspect Souda will get no joy until they tire a bit.

As I recall there's a lot of shirt holding etc with Motherwell which will stump the wing attack a bit but Lawless is more than capable of handling that.

Dykes will come in got a LOT of close personal attention.

It's setting out to be an intriguing contest between two in-form sides which probably means it will be a nil - nil draw.

John Beaton is the referee

Not sure Motherwell are an in form side D, or at least not on the same form we are. The goals have dried up for them with just 6 goals in their last 7 league games, and only 1 goal since coming back from the winter break. Their last 3 league games have had a loss, a win and a draw too, compared to our 3 wins in a row scoring 7 goals.

Their defence is still pretty solid though, they've not conceded many in those games, and haven't conceded a goal in January, home or away. I suspect it could be similar to the St Johnstone game and 1 goal decides it.

Yeah Gallagher had Souda in his pocket the last time we played them at home, and Souda got frustrated with him, coming on as a sub may see him getting more success against Deccy. Hoping Pitts continues his confident form, he's a threat from distance as well as close up, finding the ball inside the box with his perfectly timed runs.

Dec has been playing as one of a CB pairing at M’well. He has settled well (no pun intended) & while I was surprised he got the international call up I think he deserved it for his performances with us & them.

This will be a tough game & their season so far has made our 0-0 with them on opening day a decent draw.

If we can keep it tight at the back (Accies goals were too easily scored) then we can get something from this game.

Rather difficuilt at the moment to make a prediction on this game.Not knowing if we are going to have a striker taking the feild tommorrow is frustrating the hell out of me.Guess we,l know by midnight.On the hopefull assumption that Lyndon is still here its still gonna be tough to seperate two in form teams.Motherwell are having a terrific season so far this season by their standards and will be formidable opposition.Still will be good to test ourselves against one of the best teams in the country at the moment.Also will be good to see big Decks again ,cant wait to see him up against big Al if hes playing.With us being at home and on our own pitch might just give us a small advantage and goes without saying we will have to grab any chance that might come our way.Its probably got draw written all over it but i feel if Lyndon is still here come midnight it will give the lads and us that wee boost needed to get a positive result.I await with baited breath and of course wish the boys the very best of luck regardless of tonights outcome.Cmon the Lions.

Excellent game today & if not for Gillespie it could have been embarrassing for Well.

I thought he had saved the goal at the time!

And despite our dominance they almost snatched an undeserved draw with that shot that hit the post.

Terrific result & the other results weren’t too shabby for us either.

Hibs result was ok, the Sevco v Aberdeen one was pish, the one time you want the current buns to win a game and they feck it up, we can't get above Aberdeen for another 2 games now.

Stunning performance by Livi today though, to a man they were far better than Motherwell, the most dominant 1-0 game you'll ever see. It would've been daylight robbery if they'd scored with their only shot of the whole game in the 91st min, think i'd have been inconsolable for the rest of the weekend if they'd stole a draw in that game.

Didn't even use a sub, which surprised me, we'll have to rotate the squad a bit in the next fortnight, with 5 games being played. Don't want to have players a bit jaded.

Ref was shite as usual, says a lot when our management team both got booked for complaining about decisions, really annoying when we had adv twice and he blew for a foul and didn't let us run through on goal for the 2nd one with Dykes having a free run from the halfway line.

Anyway, it was a much deserved win for the Livi lions, what a season we're having, I honestly don't think Motherwell are out of our reach either, we're capable of getting 3rd place on this form.

Superb show from Livi yesterday against a supprisingly poor Motherwell team.They worked their preverbial socks of to a man and got their reward for their endevours.Albeit another shocker from Beaton didnt detract the faci that Livi more than deserved to win.Great all round team performance and would be tough to pick a man of the match although i thought Pitts and Dykes were stand outs.We are doing so well and hopefully we will put this we are staying up to bed.These guys just might have a bigger agenda to aim for and the way its going its not unsurmountable.That paasport is just itching to get out Well done Lads.

Troy wrote:Superb show from Livi yesterday against a supprisingly poor Motherwell team.They worked their preverbial socks of to a man and got their reward for their endevours.Albeit another shocker from Beaton didnt detract the faci that Livi more than deserved to win.Great all round team performance and would be tough to pick a man of the match although i thought Pitts and Dykes were stand outs.We are doing so well and hopefully we will put this we are staying up to bed.These guys just might have a bigger agenda to aim for and the way its going its not unsurmountable.That paasport is just itching to get out Well done Lads.

In the top 6.

That was magnificent yesterday. The fact that we were on the edge of our seats worried that Motherwell might smash and grab it added to the atmosphere. I honestly thought some of the passing and side flicks were mesmerising. And against the team that is 3rd in the league. I'm torturing myself wondering how it would have been if we hadn't had such crap fortune in the first half of the season when refs made mistakes (!) and opposition goals were scored with deflections off our defenders.

All I will say about John Beaton is that he is an incompetent, arrogant erse.

I like the fact our “choir” sings “we are staying up” - it shows a sense of humour & is a reminder to the pundits who tip us for relegation & want us to go down because they fail to see we actually play some cracking football, that we are hanging around to bug them even more.

As Orco said some of our play yesterday was a joy to watch & had fast & skilful passing. Lawless passing with the outside of his foot with a wee dink that was perfectly weighted was probably the pick of the bunch but there was a lot of intricate passing moves.

For me the actual man of the match was Gillespie, if not for him we would have embarrassed them. Our best player? Probably Pitts, with Bartley, Dykes & Lawless not far behind but they all played very well.

I read that yellow card for Marv puts him over the limit and he'll be suspended for our next game, would be worthwhile appealing it, it was a perfectly timed tackle. Only thing is, the panel are made up of refs, and it could be down to their interpretation of whether it was controlled, and not dangerous, they could just make up shit to back their fellow official.

*edit. Seems it kicks in 14 days time, so will be the Sevco away game.

Yes the you Tube footage shows he got 100% of the ball. The Motherwell player went down because he tripped over Marvin's outstretched leg after the ball was cleared..it happened right in front of me and I was mystified at the time as to why it was deemed a foul never mind a booking. Worth an appeal. If it is denied it only goes to show they are all useless.
Dykes got booked for petulance with the ball. Fair enough you might think but a Hamilton player got away with the same thing because he thought a goal kick should have been a corner. No consistency!

Enjoyed watching sportscene tonight, they couldn't really find any highlights of Motherwell attacking our goal so it was all Livi attacks.  Right up to the very last minute when Motherwell finally had a shot on our goal and hit the post.

Hod it and dod it finally seeing how good we are too, and talking about us even getting a European slot.

Stephen Robinson in today's Metro

"Livingston are very difficult to play against. It's not pretty but it's effective. That is not a criticism of Livingston. They deserve nothing but credit and three points.
We got bullied all over the park. There's no point analysing it any more than that. Lyndon Dykes was outstanding up front - he bullied us all day."
Fud! The old chestnut rolled out again. We're physical and don't play nice football.
Well long may he and his likes underestimate what our players can actually do.

To be honest Lyndon Dykes is getting more and more unplayable for a lot of teams in the Premiership. Even when they try to mark him with two men it doesn't seem to work - yest every game he seems to grow in confidence and stature.

With all due respect to Stephen Robinson, other than us playing very well, he got Motherwell's tactics entirely wrong - there was no real goal threat up front which meant we had all the time in the world to press up and boss the game.

Also I personally thought our football was very pretty; unlike the 'Well's attempt although its difficult to ascertain a teams style when they're unable to keep hold of the ball for more than two consecutive passes.

I think you are being unfair on Well. We were the better team & Robinson’s comments (as laughable as they were predictable) notwithstanding, we played some very nice football, carving them open repeatedly only to be thwarted by an inspired Gillespie, but Motherwell were no mugs, we just happened to be better for most of the 90 minutes.

In terms of physicality, they were just as, if not more, “robust” in their challenges than we were & yet they got away with it. Dykes took an arm or an elbow to the head at one point, we played on but no card was issued to the perpetrator once play stopped.

That said, I agree Orco, they can underestimate us as long as they want.

If Marv is to miss a game then that one is as good as any but that booking epitomised Beaton’s ineptitude.

Bertie Bassett wrote:I think you are being unfair on Well. We were the better team & Robinson’s comments (as laughable as they were predictable) notwithstanding, we played some very nice football, carving them open repeatedly only to be thwarted by an inspired Gillespie, but Motherwell were no mugs, we just happened to be better for most of the 90 minutes.

In terms of physicality, they were just as, if not more, “robust” in their challenges than we were & yet they got away with it. Dykes took an arm or an elbow to the head at one point, we played on but no card was issued to the perpetrator once play stopped.

That said, I agree Orco, they can underestimate us as long as they want.

If Marv is to miss a game then that one is as good as any but that booking epitomised Beaton’s ineptitude.

I'm not sure I have been unfair on Motherwell to be honest. I have respect for a lot of their team although their tactics, what they were, were almost laughable. That has more to do with the management than the players although our "terriers" keeping ripping the ball from them is probably what Robinson found "unattractive".

As I posted on P&B:

That wasn't as enjoyable game to watch as it should have been. Despite them obviously having an off day; Motherwell are a good side and its not too difficult to see why they're sitting third.

Easily the best goalkeeper in the division and some strong defensive and midfield options. Its worth noting that when Dykes was playing more on the left he was up against Gallagher and got very little quarter; switching to the right he got a lot more freedom.

With virtually no bite for Motherwell up front; our defence seemed to have almost all the time in the world; allowing for our backs to push more forward and flood the midfield.

We played very well (in my opinion) but Motherwell's lack of attack really played into our hands; interesting particularly as our "wing" backs were both Motherwell "rejects".

Yeah, I think that is a little more accurate with a bit more perspective on their overall performance rather than only their forward line.... that said, how much of their lack of attacking threat was as much down to our defence marshalling them & dominating them? We nullified their threat rather then letting them get anything going.

Agree too that Gallagher was their best defender but I think Dykes gave him plenty to think about too.

Yeah I said that on P&B in reply to D's post, Dykes chased down Gallagher every time Gillespie threw the ball out to him, and hardly allowed Dec to bring it up the pitch, instead it went back to Gillespie, then to the other CB, or Dec had to pass it to the other CB, and he wasn't as good at getting the ball up to a Well player. Dykes put in one hell of a shift chasing down balls all by himself, running between 2 CB's.

I actually don't mind Robinson's comments, I honestly don't think he knows how to play against us, esp at the TMA, and gets dragged into this physical battle nonsense, which allows us to play rings around them. He seems to concentrate more on our game than his own, and he has our game all wrong.
I've always found Motherwell to be far more physical than us anyway, with the robust challenges they put it, bloody boils my piss that they get away with so much against us too. The big haddy Mugabi that came on atfter HT was constantly fouling Dykes, if he wasn't rugby tackling him he was holding onto his shirt or just battering into him, and not a single bloody card was handed out to him.

Dykes gets that treatment all the time too, much like Lee Miller did a couple of seasons back, and last season when he picked up an injury from a rare appearance, and guess who we were playing that day?

orco wrote:Stephen Robinson in today's Metro

"Livingston are very difficult to play against. It's not pretty but it's effective. That is not a criticism of Livingston. They deserve nothing but credit and three points.
We got bullied all over the park. There's no point analysing it any more than that. Lyndon Dykes was outstanding up front - he bullied us all day."
Fud! The old chestnut rolled out again. We're physical and don't play nice football.
Well long may he and his likes underestimate what our players can actually do.

I see what you mean Orco.

“We went down and played similar to Livingston and we aren’t very good at that. We need to get back to what we do which is passing the ball, building play and having ownership of the game. We didn’t have that on Saturday. Any decision I made didn’t work. Sometimes that happens.

Yep, hasn't a clue how to play against us, or understand how we play, that's what we like to see.

My fave old chestnut is this one though.

“We had ten people off their game, as simple as that.

We must be the luckiest team in the world the way we just seem to play teams when their players have an off day.

Liviforever wrote:

We must be the luckiest team in the world the way we just seem to play teams when their players have an off day.

Either that or the fact that we've signed the chef from the Marriott Hotel in Canary Wharf to make the pre-match Lasagne

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11675/10860462/tottenhams-lasagne-gate-against-west-ham-remembered

My name printed in this week's courier, so is Orco's.

I cannae read it. Hope it wasn't my comment about John Beaton being an Erse.

orco wrote:I cannae read it. Hope it wasn't my comment about John Beaton being an Erse.

Nah you just mention the Aberdeen 6-1 game at Pittodrie. Mine is about 5 paragraphs listing all the games I enjoyed over the years, then rounding it off about the Motherwell win last week, no like me to go on a bit.