St Johnstone v Livi

Tough away game at the best of times, but they're on an 11 game unbeaten run (incl cup games), and just drew with Celtic at Parkhead too, which they were unlucky not to win. However, this is just the type of game we have a habit of breaking runs, first team to take points off Hearts a couple of seasons back, Celtic last season (iirc), Sevco this season, and we ourselves have upped our game since Martindale took charge, not conceding a goal in two game and scoring 6.

If i was a calculated betting man i'd stick a tenner on this being a 2-2 draw, but then my amber tinted specs would get the better of me and punt it all on a Livi win, prob a good job i don't bet on football games.

Anyway, hopefully go with the same starting XI again, and we get our second win over them this season, lets go on a spectacular December run, mon the Lions.

Cannae mind the last time we beat St Johnstone at McDermid.
I do remember when we were flying high in the SPL first time around going up to Perth to play St Johnstone who at that time were hanging off the bottom of the league. An easy win was the thought of every Livi fan I'm sure. They spanked us 2-0 with a certain Paul Hartley running the show.

Will be more than happy with a point from this game but it would be a great time to get the Perth monkey off our back. Only win I can recall at the Fairmer’s Field was whipping Alloa on my birthday in 2014. We should have beaten them up there at the start of last season but threw away a 2 goal lead & Dykes looked like a waste of a shirt & compounded that by passing his pen to the keeper. The big fella really improved immensely over the course of last season. So hopefully the lads take inspiration from that & put in 90 mins of playing like they did in the first 45 of that game.

Guess this will be a good indication to us having turned a wee corner if indeed is the case.Their on a great run at the moment and will maybe see this as a home banker. Will be interesting to see how Davie sets us up.Will he be bold?or will he hedge his bets during the game.Its gonna be tough and like Bertie a share of the spoils wouldnt dissapoint me,although with us still at the wrong end of the table 3 points would be massive for us and keep the little bit of momentum weve got intact.Should be a highly competitive game and im looking forward to it. Cmon the Lions

I am expecting exactly the same line up as last weekend.

Yeh horses for courses i guess. Hopefully the players can adapt to the conditions. Its rotten out there.Not going to be pretty. Just hope the team give it a right good go.

Scrappy first half at best from both teams.Sticky pitch isnt helping either. Couple of chances for Saints but not much from us.Hope We're more of an attacking threat second half,think Holt would love to get on here,Cmon Livi.
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Another win and another 3 points.. Simple

As i said earlier, dissapointing first half from both teams.Saints with the best chance to open the scoring. 2nd half after a terrific set peice put us on the front foot only to give them a sniff, but credit to the lads.Kept going and that delivery from Mullin for Robbo,sublime.Thankfully we managed to hang on near the end.Big result for us,and sets us up nicely for Wednesday night.Its their for the taking if we want it.Dare i say it,Hampden beckons.Well done our Lions.

Martindale on course for December's MoTM, just needs to get us to Hampden now and beat Accies, Killie and Aberdeen. Long due a win against the sheep, only team we haven't beaten since we came back up to the top flight.

Saints pressed us well and after the first 20 odd mins we got into the game and looked more comfortable, was pretty pleased going into HT 0-0. Was surprised when i saw Tiffoney coming on though, take it Poplatnik is injured. Then Tiffs going off injured too, and JET still can't get a game , seriously though, the big fella just doesn't give us the energy we need up front to press defenders, would love it if he was a lot better once he got fully fit but have my doubts.

Slightly unorthodox header for BBJ scoring our goal, heading it in off the back of his napper, but well headed in. Feared the worst when they equalised, but we look a different team under Martindale, and have our fight and grit back. Brilliant pass by Mullin for Robbo, and well put away. Our game management has really improved too, to see out the game, even with Beaton adding a minute onto his 4 minutes added time.

Up we pop to 7th place now, top 6 here we come.

Yeh,tottally agree L/F.Forgot to edit, Weve just beaten the so called Tayside giants home and away.Two teams who i genuinely felt we'd be fighting for that top six place.Forgive my trepidations,but theres still a long way to go.Todays result has done much to eleviate my fears. We move on.

Looking forward to seeing the highlights as I decided not to part with £17.50 for the PPV.

Terrific result coupled with Accies & County both losing makes it a good day all round.

Good to see Guthrie & Robbo notching a goal each. Pity we didn’t keep a clean sheet but at lest we didn’t capitulate when they equalised as we did against Accies & someone else.

Guid win that especially given that Beaton was the referee. Of course he had to book Bartley for a silly handbags thing that was actually instigated by the St Johnstone player who got off. He will be able to play against Ross County mid week but I'm not sure if his ban will kick in for Kilmarnock or Hamilton.
Mon the Livi!

Just glad weve got those points in the bag.Yeh these upcoming suspensions are a pain in the arse, but I guess wel just have to get on with it.Hopefully the players that come in take their chance but it is frustrating all the same.Bloody officials.

orco wrote:Guid win that especially given that Beaton was the referee. Of course he had to book Bartley for a silly handbags thing that was actually instigated by the St Johnstone player who got off. He will be able to play against Ross County mid week but I'm not sure if his ban will kick in for Kilmarnock or Hamilton.
Mon the Livi!

Livi Commentary team said it'll be the Acies game.

Aye Beaton was murder, the amount of fouls he was giving Utd players in the first half, for basically dropping like sacks of spuds whenever they were under pressure. And completely ignoring barges on Livi players, the one he ignored on Fitzwater being pushed and touching the ball as it went out of play almost cost us a goal too, although i think Stryjek had it covered, if it was an inch or two lower to go under the bar, his fingers would've tipped it over the bar.
One of their players was a few inches in front of ours and just fell backwards into him and Beaton gave them a foul, what exactly are you meant to do when a player drops to the deck and goes into you on his way down?

Was funny in the 2nd half when the St J's player grabbed the  ball and got a foul against him for hand ball, the shocked look on his face, as they were getting fouls for falling down all game.

Also thought Tiffoney being injured and neither Beaton or the St J players stopping play was unsporting, the amount of times play gets stopped when it's us with the ball in that situation, and the Ref starts play with a dropped ball, and they went on and scored.

Anyway, GIRU them, we won and are only 2 points off 6th place, and 3 pts from 5th place Motherwell, who's covid 6 pts puts them in a false position form wise..

Troy wrote:Just glad weve got those points in the bag.Yeh these upcoming suspensions are a pain in the arse, but I guess wel just have to get on with it.Hopefully the players that come in take their chance but it is frustrating all the same.Bloody officials.

Good thing about this squad is we're well covered for injuries and suspensions, just look at Yesterday, our 3rd choice striker (attacking mid) came on replacing the 2 previous ones and scored the winning goal. Holt is perfect to replace Marv, don't think the 2 of them are needed playing together either, too similar a role, Sibbs works a lot better playing beside one of them. Lawson could also play there and do well, not sure if he was injured yesterday when he wasn't even on the bench though.

Hopefully Poplatnik is ok for Wed night, then we have a free weekend for players to recover, if not then Robbo showed he can do the job up front for us too.

Hearing Poplatnik has problems with ribs, injury he picked up against Dundee United, that’s why he was taken off at half time. Not sure if he will be in the squad for tomorrow ‍�

Utd have developed a habit of injuring our most influential strikers.