bunglebonce

I don’t know how accurate transfermarkt is for League 2, but this covers his 12 league appearances.

Back five again with Nightingale fit once more, I think. Will Baldwin have an error free match?

Michael Stewart did. He inferred that Kettlewell shouldn’t have been surprised that VAR doesn’t look at handball incidents by other players leading to a goal.

Yesterday was the first time that Brophy and Murray have started together. Getting them on the pitch together more is surely the way to scoring enough goals to keep the team away from 12th.

Baldwin needs to start leading by example.

Credit where it’s due, Baldwin was good vs Dundee (albeit they had nothing up front).

If it’s a back three it will be Randall as the right centre back and a midfield base of Allardice and Loturi. It could well be the same back five shape. I think that the 442 diamond formation suits that XI because that system calls for two mobile strikers in the absence of any width, and you need both full backs to attack and Harmon is a more attacking left-back than Purrington.

442 diamond. White dropped

That's a bit flattering to County, who are a) pish and b) the most predictable team in the league to plan for.

That’s just how Ross County have been playing away from home in 2023. Brutal.

Pish match. Beck is good. Bakayoko is not. Sims is not. Dhanda is but keeps on being taken off.

Henderson hasn't had a look in because they have been playing a back five for most of this season so far. Malky was in the press during the break to say that Henderson is working hard on his off-the-ball game to get him up to the demands of regular top flight football. Brophy has taken some time to get sharpness after his injury last season. He looked more at it in the last match County played when he came on as a sub. I thought he'd be in contention tonight for a start. Then I thought he'd be the first change on tonight. So who knows what is going on.

It's the only thing he's done all night.

Phew. After performing so poorly with five at the back, another defender in midfield and after big JW was hooked at HT in our last match, it's good to see some sense in the old line-up again.

The pitch drainage got a massive overhaul a decade ago and has been excellent since. It'll surely get called off for the other factors though.

It's just not the same.

By the time I relented I missed out on the good stuff.

Three things: White and Samuel shouldn’t start together again. Shankland needs to cut down on the milkshakes if he wants to sustain a career at this level. Hearts fans sure like to sing about the IRA.

We had wingers who commanded respect from the opposition then.

That’ll be the L̶o̶v̶i̶n̶g̶ Longman Cup in the cabinet top-right.

That sounds brilliant to me, but just to set expectations what school did Ray go to?

Saw the highlights this morning. From a Ross County POV: Goal 1. I agree with Malky in that you just have to accept the improvisation deserves the goal. Goal 2. Laughable. Turner shirks the 50/50. Brown slips. Randall and Reid bust a gut to get back to salvage an impossible situation. Turner should be trying to make amends but doesn't even make the party, let alone being late to it. Goal 3. A bit of a system issue. The two strikers are out of the game and Aberdeen create an overload. Brown has to come inside to face the ball but that stretches the defence. It's not helped by Turner avoiding to take responsibility for tracking McGrath into the area. Turner ends up checking to go in the other direction! So bad. Goal 4. What a mess. great assist by Duk and you shouldn't take anything away from Miovski putting Baldwin down and the sharp finish. That's the second week in a row that Laidlaw has let in a near-post finish, however. Miovski didn't need Duk again but Duk was left free by Dhanda, who didn't want to cross the threshold into the area. If County continue with Turner and Dhanda in a three-man midfield, there are plenty teams who will tear into them. Either Randall needs to never leave the zone in front of the D, or he needs another midfelder beside him who can track and put in a challenge. We might see either Scott High or Scott Allardice play on Wednesday.

White has started every match in all competitions in the last 12 months. It’ll take something drastic for him to be dropped.

He has a final ball on him, which is a good option to have from the bench at least.

Given that: a) County won with a clean sheet at Rugby Park with a back three of Nightingale, Baldwin and Leak b) Livi will almost certainly be using three centre-backs themselves c) Nightingale's presser detailed Malky talking to the three defenders working together County will stick with the 5-3-2/3-4-1-2 and my guess is it'll be the same XI that started vs Killie. I think I'd prefer an extra midfielder on the pitch. I'll be watching out for how high County's centre-backs have to go up the pitch to pick up Livi's attacking midfielders. County's defence has already shown that they are reasonably adept at defending deep, but today will be a different type of game for them. Laidlaw Nightingale | Baldwin | Leak Brown | Randall | Turner | Reid Dhanda White | Murray