Livi v Ayr Betfred Knock Out

Job done. Second half was a case of playing out the game without getting any injuries, keeping the clean sheet & if we could add to the score then fine, but that would maybe be gilding the lily.

Very good performance from start to finish, Devlin & Mullin linked well, Pops did a lot of good hold up play & had 1 or 2 chances. Pitts & Sibs ran the midfield, Marv looked more like his normal self, ditto Guthrie, Fitz looked like he’d been playing in the team all season. Lawson was very good, Forrest was relatively quiet but took his goal well. Big Max had some dodgy kicks but had nothing much to do. All the subs did a job... JET proved my point that he would do better against tiring defenders, would have liked to see him in the box a bit more though.

Well done to them all. Hopefully, they take confidence from this & apply themselves the same way in the league.

Yeh would agree with your summary there Bertie.More concice than mine.Aa i said previously was surprised at how poor Ayr were.The game was over as a competiion after the first 45.Second half a we bit more subdued, understandable but Ayr tightened up.Not getting carried away by this,next week more important for me.But a wee bit of respite from the week weve just had.

Liviforever wrote:
Anyway, on this cup game, do we stick with JET, hoping another game will be enough to get him sharper and fitter for the league games, or go back to a more mobile Tiffoney up front. Tiffs would at least turn defenders and have them on the back foot. Think we should be working the flanks instead of constantly knocking the ball up the centre of the pitch too (unless it's over the top for Tiffs to run onto), esp if we stick with JET up front, he isn't a great hold up player, defenders just stick their legs from around the back of him and kick the ball away. Mullin and Forrest are good at cutting inside with the ball and having shots at goal too, and with Serrano and Devlin we've good pacey FB's to work overlaps with the wingers as well. Mullin and Serrano having good deliveries from the wings, so between the 4 of them we've got options for crosses or cutting inside with the ball.

Think we're far enough into the season to stop chopping and changing in cup game, we should be using this game in preparation for our next 2 league games, picking our strongest starting XI and forgetting about giving fringe players game time.

Yep, what a difference a more mobile striker up front made, and both Forrest and Mullin on the wings. Played Lawson instead of Serrano but did the same job working overlaps with the wingers, esp Devlin & Mullin. Poplatnik chased down every ball and forced defenders into making rushed clearances, making it easier for our midfield and defenders to pick up the ball and get us back possession.

Absolutely what we were missing with Holt persisting with JET and how he had us playing. Also what a difference it made to our corners having Mullin taking them, he's one of the best in the league, and it showed.

Surprise package was Fitzwater, didn't really get tested in defence because our forward and midfield pressed Ayr so well they barely got a sniff at our goal, but scored 2 goals and is another excellent goal threat at set pieces, when we've got a player of Mullin's calibre delivering the ball into the box.

Big test will be when we get back to playing Premiership teams, but Ayr are a decent Championship team and we absolute strolled that game today, and have done the same to Dundee Utd earlier in the season when we played the same way.

Don't know where this leaves JET now, this game certainly proved what we fans were all saying, we needed a more mobile striker playing, surely can't go back to starting him now.

Not sure he even worked well with Tiffoney playing alongside him, he keeps dropping deep and hasn't the pace to get back up the pitch to become effective around the box.

Anyway for me Poplatnik has to be our first choice striker, with Tiffoney 2nd choice, and JET a 2nd half sub at best when we need a plan B (and even then i'm not sure what he brings to change a game for us if we're struggling).