Livi v St Mirren

[LIVIFOREVER]

Looking forward to this game, we've been on the road our last 3 games, so good to get a home game at last. A win or draw here and we have our best ever start to a season, going 9 games undefeated, so a lot riding on this. 

Easy to get carried away after a big win but I think Holt will have the players feet firmly on the ground, this looks like being a tough game, St Mirren haven't scored many but they have been tough to score against too.

Some injury doubts for this too, Dykes looked in distress at the end of the game, Keaghan and Robbo went off injured, and Stobbs got taken off after coming on as a sub for Robbo (think that was a fitness issue rather than an injury though), so a few concerns on them being fit for this game.

Anyway, i'm pretty confident we can get a win here, even if some don't make it, we've good quality players waiting to come in, Souda in particular will be bursting to get a game again after being left on the bench the last 2 games.

[Durnford]

Agreed - it will be great to have another home game (wasn't able to make the Motherwell one so its even longer for me). great couple of away games I suppose but good to be on home (plastic) turf.

I expect the buddies will be feeling a bit hard done by after losing out against sevco; how that will manifest itself in there game is a matter of some debate.

 

[Lola montez]

Lions eat Zebras don't they? Asking for a friend

[LIVIFOREVER]

7 minutes ago, Lola montez said:

Lions eat Zebras don't they? Asking for a friend

Not sure they want to go near demented ones though.

[pozbaird]

Can’t see many goals in this one. Going for a hard fought 1-1.

[Munoz]

Providing we dont concede many throw ins near our 18 yard line, I can see us picking up a win here. Livi are on a decent run of form, but I'm sure our defence will be a tougher nut to crack than County's was at the weekend. Providing we start taking our chances , im hopeful of the 3pts.

Edited August 27, 2019 by Munoz

[Wilbur]

If St Mirren defend as pathetically as County did we will deserve to be scudded.

Can't see that happening TBH.

[Cptn Hooch]

Providing we dont concede many throw ins near our 18 yard line, I can see us picking up a win here. Livi are on a decent run of form but I'm sure our defence will be a tougher but to crack than County's was at the weekend. Providing we start taking our chances , im hopeful of the 3pts.

The long throw in isn't as important for us these days. We're scoring plenty from open play

[crispy]

St Mirren are looking like a tough nut to crack and we all agree the defending by County was absolutely woeful.  Also, I don’t think we’ve really been tested by a free-flowing team, while failing to keep clean sheets, so if St Mirren can piece it all together it’ll make for a tough game. We are better going forward (compared to last season) but I don’t think we’ve faced a particularly robust defence. A tight 1-1 might not be too far off the mark.

 

[madmitch]

Yup score draw is my guess.

[LIVIFOREVER]

St Mirren's only managed 1 goal in their first 3 league games (struggled to get goals in betfred games too), scoring goals isn't exactly their forte, 0-0 would be a better bet. I think if we score then we'll win though, cause we'll then go on to get another.

[flyingscot]

Be quite an interesting test of where we are. We've played 3 games that we wouldn't expect much from, Aberdeen, Hibs and Rangers and have 3 points. Wouldn't expect us to play the same defensive tactics with counter attacking against Livi. 

I'd expect a tough game and would take a draw. Thought Livi might be worse off than last season with the loss of a few players, but they've started really well. 

[Coventry Saint]

24 minutes ago, LIVIFOREVER said:

St Mirren's only managed 1 goal in their first 3 league games (struggled to get goals in betfred games too), scoring goals isn't exactly their forte, 0-0 would be a better bet. I think if we score then we'll win though, cause we'll then go on to get another.

While that's undeniably true, we've played decent teams and we have an entirely new first-choice strikeforce so it's not surprising we've struggled to score while they gel and learn to read each other's runs, etc.

0-0 probably isn't a bad shout, tbf - we are clearly difficult to score against, too. We have a significantly better side than the one that won 3-1 at your place last time out, although that was against 10 men (for most the game) with relatively little to play for. 

Not wishing to spark a plastic pitch debate, but I wonder if Gary Mack will be risked for this one. It'd be a shame as he's clearly started very well. Jack Baird might come in instead. Other than that I can't see us changing anything. Perhaps McAllister in for Durmus, maybe Morias in for Obika, just to mix things up slightly

[LIVIFOREVER]

20 minutes ago, Coventry Saint said:

While that's undeniably true, we've played decent teams and we have an entirely new first-choice strikeforce so it's not surprising we've struggled to score while they gel and learn to read each other's runs, etc.

0-0 probably isn't a bad shout, tbf - we are clearly difficult to score against, too. We have a significantly better side than the one that won 3-1 at your place last time out, although that was against 10 men (for most the game) with relatively little to play for. 

Not wishing to spark a plastic pitch debate, but I wonder if Gary Mack will be risked for this one. It'd be a shame as he's clearly started very well. Jack Baird might come in instead. Other than that I can't see us changing anything. Perhaps McAllister in for Durmus, maybe Morias in for Obika, just to mix things up slightly

On paper they were yep, but Aberdeen look out of sorts just now and Hibs defence is piss poor, although they're a force going forward, which you coped with for the most part. I'd expect most teams will score against Hibs but St Mirren didn't manage to, maybe it's because of how Goodwin sets you up, more defensively than attack minded.  

It's usually a tough fixture for us though and I don't see it being any different this game, on a plus side for us, we've so many players that score goals and from all sort of areas, we're not as reliant of set pieces this season either but we just got a couple from there against County, I think big Guthrie coming in has made a big difference to that aspect of our game. 

We might need a Steven Lawless 25 yarder into the top corner to get through the St Mirren defence though, he pulls off one of those  a season, this would be the ideal game for him to do one.

[crispy]

34 minutes ago, Coventry Saint said:

While that's undeniably true, we've played decent teams and we have an entirely new first-choice strikeforce so it's not surprising we've struggled to score while they gel and learn to read each other's runs, etc.

0-0 probably isn't a bad shout, tbf - we are clearly difficult to score against, too. We have a significantly better side than the one that won 3-1 at your place last time out, although that was against 10 men (for most the game) with relatively little to play for. 

Not wishing to spark a plastic pitch debate, but I wonder if Gary Mack will be risked for this one. It'd be a shame as he's clearly started very well. Jack Baird might come in instead. Other than that I can't see us changing anything. Perhaps McAllister in for Durmus, maybe Morias in for Obika, just to mix things up slightly

I think there is a case to say that St. Mirren's start to the league campaign has been the most impressive outwith Celtic, having 3 points from Aberdeen, Hibs and Rangers . 

I agree we can't read much in to the 3-1 at the end of April: we'll likely only be starting 3 of the same players; two of the goals were in the last 12 mins of a game during a roasting day; and St Mirren appear to have undergone some big changes, too.

Edited August 27, 2019 by crispy

[Durnford]

So many clubs are not performing as I'd predicted so far this season. Aberdeen haven't been anywhere near their last year's form; same can be said for Hibs. Hearts have been shocking and the fact that Ross County can capitulate to our still experimental side and still be fourth in the league takes some working out.

Will be interesting to see what kind of an impact Andreau has to the buddies; he was a very good player when he was with us but always seemed a better player when playing against us unfortunately.

[Durnford]

2 minutes ago, crispy said:

I think there is a case to say that St. Mirren's start to the league campaign has been the most impressive outwith Celtic, having 3 points from Aberdeen, Hibs and Rangers . 

They only got two points didn't they? 

 

EDIT - My mistake - for some reason I thought it was two draws and a loss; not one win - senility setting in at last

 

Edited August 27, 2019 by Durnford

[crispy]

Just now, Durnford said:

They only got two points didn't they?

 

Och, who's counting? 

[LIVIFOREVER]

3 minutes ago, Durnford said:

So many clubs are not performing as I'd predicted so far this season. Aberdeen haven't been anywhere near their last year's form; same can be said for Hibs. Hearts have been shocking and the fact that Ross County can capitulate to our still experimental side and still be fourth in the league takes some working out.

Will be interesting to see what kind of an impact Andreau has to the buddies; he was a very good player when he was with us but always seemed a better player when playing against us unfortunately.

Actually forgot he was playing when we played Accies last season, he was anonymous. So Andreu to pop up and score against us on Sat then.

[Coventry Saint]

26 minutes ago, crispy said:

I think there is a case to say that St. Mirren's start to the league campaign has been the most impressive outwith Celtic, having 3 points from Aberdeen, Hibs and Rangers . 

Emerging with three points a goal difference of just -1 is what's kept me happy 

Obviously it's all worthless if we lose the plot over the next seven games. This fixture definitely fits into the 'impossible to predict' category.