Next seasons expectations.

They're certainly capable of beating us 1-0, the other 4 teams though, nah. St Mirren and Aberdeen will take points off them, prob get a draw against Dundee, they'll be lucky to get more than 5 pts from their remaining 5 games.

Bit early for expectations this season, but got to admit, i'm hitting overload on my expectationatronametor. That should be a word BTW.

Would've liked to have kept Forrest, and Bailey isn't likely to be back either, but this big attacking winger we're linked with, playing opposite Nouble, could be an awesome combo with Anderson in the middle of them. We'll have gone from nippy short arses, to 6ft + powerful players with a decent burst of pace, bring it fecking on.

The big lad in midfield should be a force to reckon with too, a giant Omeonga.

Yeah, sounds like we are finally going to be the team that everyone else thinks we have been for the last 5 years… full of giants.

Giants with skill on the ball too, not the big hammer throwers St Johnstone used to bully us with. Talking of which, gonna be a nightmare the amount of times they aunts will be diving getting fouls playing us this season, with the refs falling for it just because our players are big. Nouble will prob be getting kicked stupid with 3 players hanging from him and St Johnstone will get the foul tae.

On the whole our refs are useless.

I've been noticing in internationals and some European games recently a lot of the referees are allowing play to continue when players are going down easy. Probably unrelated, but I wonder if VAR is maybe giving them the confidence to let the game flow rather than give the divers the benefit of the doubt.

I dislike VAR based on the English method of operation, the drawing of lines for offside is so flawed it’s laughable. It should be used only to establish the facts… for example who the ball came off last to establish whether it’s a corner or goal kick, whose throw in it should be, whether it was a foul or not and whether it was in the box or not.

When it comes to offside, if the still frame photo is so close that you need to draw lines, go with the on-field decision because it quite simply wasn’t obviously wrong and when it is a clear offside that the line-o sees in real time, stick the flag up right away, if it’s tight let the play develop.

On LF’s point about big guys with skill… yeah, I did almost mention that… hopefully that is the case. I can’t wait to see Noobs score… it’s all he needs to become a top star in our league.

Nouble is certainly skillful anyway, and from what i've seen of clips of Bitsindou and Bahamboula*, they're both ballers too.

*Think we've signed him but it isn't official till the start of July, when his current contract expires and he's a free agent.

Haven't made my mind up yet about Seasons expectations as yet.Will wait a couple of weeks to give an assessment. Will trust in Davies judgement on the newbees. A few relatively unknown quantities im sure and yes Forrest and Bailey will definitely be big misses for us.Be interesting to see how we do in the run up to August 6th.Cant wait..

Was going to wait till after todays game,but nevertheless here goes.Last season i predicted 9th for us.We got 7th which was a tremendous effort albeit a bawhair away from the top six.So having said that I'm going for an opptomistic 8th place for us this season.I feel top 6 is just beyond us.As I've said previously, Forrest and Baily are such big misses for us,and contrary to some people's beliefs I feel we are not as strong as we were this time last season.The new players don't exactly fill me with an overwhelming sense of confidence. Its early doors of course but the early signs imo don't fill me with the desire to predict a top six finish this time.Aberdeen and Hibs will obviously be stronger and will get back to where they feel they should be.Leaves us Killie St Mirren St Johnstone and County in a mini league of our own.I could of course be blown out of the water with my expectations in which case tottally disregard this post at your leisure.I sincerely hope humble pie will come my way in about 8 months which will have been fully deserved.Cmon Livi,prove me wrong again.Lets do it.‍�.

I'll wait till after the Kelty game before making mine.

DM's still tinkering about with the squad getting players fit, so difficult to tell how they'll do in the league. So far Bitsindou and Bahamboula look good players, and Cancar has plenty pace, big test against Sevco in the league will tell us more.

Mullin seems to have upset Martindale in pre season/cup games, scores in both games he played then gets left sitting on his arse in our last 2 cup games, hopefully will start against Kelty, or at least get some game time.
On observation thus far, Bahamboula seems like Nouble, exciting skilful player but no goal scorer, and Goncalves still needs to get fully fit. We're really relying on Bruce to get up to speed fitness wise and get us the goals, and hope Mullin continues his fine goal scoring form into the league, if he gets a game.

Yeh as I said earlier L/F was going to wait till after this game to give my expectations for the coming season. I haven't changed my mind not surprisingly.Think you've hit the nail on the head imo.The word you used reliance is so prevalent to our chances this season,even this early.Wont go over my original post again,thank fech..Just don't feel it in my water that we will do as well as weve done the last few years.But there again,what do I know.Bring it on..

I made two correct predictions at today's game. I said to Jack just before half time "I think they're going to score before the break" then boom. With about five minutes to go I said "There's gonna be a last minute Livi winner". So that's me for the season. Not tempting fate with any more.
I'd like to see Omeonga get more game time. He pressed and won the ball a few times then gave a great pass to a marauding Devlin who scored a peach of a goal.
I was glad to see Montana on too. At one point he charged nearly the length of the pitch leaving at least 3 Cove players in his wake but unfortunately no one made good advantage of it.
I hope Davie finds his best team before the league starts.
On Penrice, I'm sure he was down for an injury on Tuesday night. Hope it isn't too serious.

Hope you enjoyed your day up north Orco.As opposed to Ismeal, I really hope Montano comes onto his A game.He could be integral to our chances this season of staying clear of that dreaded 10th spot.With no Odin or Forrest hes got a helluva gap to fill..Well done to you and Jack for making it up there.Safe journey home.Lol.T..

Yeah, still too early to say how the season will go; at this point anything (except 1st or 2nd) is possible.

Hopefully we get the keeper situation sorted as neither Max nor Ivan are filling me with confidence yet. Ivan did ok today, made a couple of decent saves but his distribution is poor.
Montano showed his attacking skills but is not an LB or LWB, his run referenced by Orco was a joy to behold.
Omeonga faded a bit last season but showed his worth when he came on today & his excellent play set up the superb Devlin winner saving us from a penalty shoot out.

Well that's the cup group games finished, and we again somehow scraped through as a best 2nd placed team, time to make predictions.

Weak points were mainly defensive with 2 unreliable keepers, haven't seen Shamal play yet but the hype around him is giving me confidence, and his sheer size gives the impression he'll command his box well, dealing with high balls which has been a weakness for us from set plays.

I'm feeling pretty confident we'll be in the running for a top 6 spot again, so here goes.

Premier Cup - final
Scottish Cup - semi final
Final League Position 5th

Player to watch - Nouble & Omeonga (both absolute ballers that i love watching ripping opposition players apart)
Top Scorer - Anderson
Surprise package - Cancar*

*quite like the look of Jamie Brandon too.

Prem Cup quarter final
Scottish Cup 5th round
League 8th

Player to watch Nouble
Top Scorer Anderson
Surprise package Goncalves - I think he’ll come good

Well that's our league campaign up and running, and we got a wee chance to see other teams playing, and assessing how they look.

Not watched todays games on Sportscene yet so will just stick to yesterday.

County seem to have got another good player on loan, looking skillful, quick and direct up front, Hiwula looks a handful. Could be a top 6 contender again.

Hearts didn't look great first half, but settled better in the 2nd, would expect them to be 3rd still, Forrest got off the mark scoring in his league debut for them too, we'll miss his goals.

Utd didn't look anything special, neither did Killie, nothing to fear from either, we'll get a better look at Utd next week when we play them though, still think they'll get in the top 6.

Reckoned Hibs and St Johnstone will both be bottom 6 teams again this season, think we'll be well above both come the end of the season, seen nothing to change my mind.

Sevco are the quickest playing team we'll face, you get no time to take a breath even when the ball goes out of play, they take throw ins so quickly to get playing again, and we can't really get a decent idea of how we're looking from playing them, other than we held up well defensively and held a lead for a good part of the game. But we'll play a lot differently against the other 9 diddy teams, being able to have far more possession and getting the time to play the ball around. Still optimistic about our chances of a top 6 though, the fact we didn't take a gubbing is a positive, we're nobody's easy mark.

Liviforever wrote:Well that's the cup group games finished, and we again somehow scraped through as a best 2nd placed team, time to make predictions.

Weak points were mainly defensive with 2 unreliable keepers, haven't seen Shamal play yet but the hype around him is giving me confidence, and his sheer size gives the impression he'll command his box well, dealing with high balls which has been a weakness for us from set plays.

I'm feeling pretty confident we'll be in the running for a top 6 spot again, so here goes.

Premier Cup - final
Scottish Cup - semi final
Final League Position 5th

Player to watch - Nouble & Omeonga (both absolute ballers that i love watching ripping opposition players apart)
Top Scorer - Anderson
Surprise package - Cancar*

*quite like the look of Jamie Brandon too.

Pretty happy with my expectation but think Montano may be the surprise package now, his surging runs from midfield are excellent and that was a stormer of a goal he scored, hoping Bahamboula will get a chance to shine too, and be as good as Nouble ripping up opposition players down the wing. Long season so hopefully everyone will get their chance to shine, including Anderson, who at the minute is a bench warmer for Nouble being the chosen No9.

Imo a front 3 is still our best attacking formation, with Anderson centre, and Nouble & Mullin/Bahamboula on either side, hopefully we'll get to see that against the likes of Motherwell, St Mirren, St Johnstone, Killie and County, at least in home games. Martindale looks happy to flood the midfield to the detriment of our attack, and nullify the opposition, hoping to scrape 1-0 wins.

Well Montano has certainly come good for us this season, he's been our best player so far. Bahamboula is looking a cracking player too, and Stephen Kelly has impressed, belter of a goal against Hearts too.

My 5th place prediction is looking decent, if we can keep going the way we've started we may even have a chance for a punt at 3rd.

Auld Nick wrote:Prem Cup quarter final
Scottish Cup 5th round
League 8th

Player to watch Nouble
Top Scorer Anderson
Surprise package Goncalves - I think he’ll come good

Nouble is still my player to watch but I agree that Montano & recently Bahamboula have also lit the place up & Stephen Kelly has been a good signing on the evidence so far.

Anderson as top scorer would be my expectation - if he gets enough starts/game time. Anyone’s guess who it will be if it’s not him as a few guys are getting the odd goal here and there but no one is scoring regularly.

Goncalves as surprise package… I think it’s a surprise just how poor he’s been, does that count? I no longer think he’s going to come good and frankly I’d rather see him go out on loan somewhere & have Jack Hamilton back… not convinced Jack has enough to break through at top tier level but he brings more to the party than Goncalves.

We are better than 8th but the league is still tight enough for that to happen.

Back to back wins and everything is looking brighter for us, currently sitting 4th, 4 pts behind 3rd place Hearts.

If we can beat Utd at home on Wed it would set us up nicely for the Hearts game in our next home game a week on Sunday. With a bit of luck it could be a chance to go 3rd.

By the same token we are only 4 points above 7th, a couple of bad results would change the picture again. On the positive side the two wins were both at grounds we don’t normally do great at. We did have a great win in Dingwall a couple of years ago but more recently have dropped silly points there and we all know we don’t usually get much when we play St J - especially at their place, so to come away with 6 points from those games is excellent… imagine if we had won the two previous home games which were both winnable games… we would already be level with Hearts.

Or won at Tynecastle where we were 1-0 up and missed a penalty, or Ibrox where we conceded in ET, or Motherwell where we were cheated by the ref giving them a non penalty, or St Mirren away where again we missed a penalty. So many games we could've had more points.

Anyhoo, we are where we are and have still got ourselves in a great position to finish in the top 6, and maybe get 4th place, or even give Hearts a challenge for 3rd, pretty exciting season, and that's without Nouble & Anderson playing in a lot of games, so hopefully we'll get to see them both up front together in the 2nd half of the season.

Might be pushing my luck but i'd love a Scottish cup run all the way to the final, i think the semi's is as far as we've ever got in that cup comp.

Well my cup predictions were shite, though the Scottish cup one was looking decent till yesterday.

Still on for my league prediction, 5th place is well within our capabilities just now, may even get 4th, any one of them would do to get us a European spot.

March sees us having 3 home game.



Pretty tasty fixture against Hibs at home, if we can win that one and this weekend's game at Aberdeen we'd be sitting comfortably above both, even better if we can win our game in hand against Utd. Fantastic opportunity for us to seal our top 6 place anyway, and even give Hearts a fight for 3rd.

Lets not get carried away just yet though and see how we go.