The race for top 6 St Mirren v Livi 01/04/2023

[Lex]

35 minutes ago, sergie's no1 fan said:

Hope we can get Small up here for next season. He's really coming onto a game now. 

Small looks like a player who will be playing EPL in two or three years. Physically and technically he’s got it all. However he plays like an 18 year old, in the sense he’s out of position and does daft things a lot, but that should be coached out of him. 
Would be very pleasantly surprised if we got him back. 

[FTOF]

1 hour ago, Gareth_Glasgow said:

Really good team performance but Gogic and Small in particular were outstanding. We’re so much better with Shaughnessy back, Gogic in midfield and Small on the left side, just a shame it’s taken so long to get that lineup.

Thought Boyes was especially poor for Livi and I didn’t get why they kept trying to work everything through the middle when our middle three were doing so well.

It was more to with Gogic being back in midfield rather than Shaugnessy being back in defence IMO. Although Shaugnessy is a better CH than Gogic IMO and did improve the defence. Although I thought both he and Dunne struggled to cope with Guthrie and Nouble, who are murder to play against.

If Gallagher is fully fit next week he will start as he's our best centre half.

We really missed O'Hara after the break which helped Livingston no end.

I thought Watt looked more up to speed and took his goal with a great deal of composure.

Baccus was excellent in the first half, but faded in the second. Understandable given his and Strain's lengthy journey home.

Small looking more up to speed too and had some great runs.

All in all a good day.

 

[pozbaird]

On 22/03/2023 at 20:59, pozbaird said:

1-1 draw. Certainty. Probably achieved by us going 1-0 up, comfortable enough, then just as we think… bang. 1-1. Late on. Livvy players run to the small band of travelling fans who are going do-lally, while we, as one, say ‘ach fcuk’.

Bookmark this. All of it.

^^^ Who’s this dickhead? Arse.

[Monkey socks]

Never thought of Curtis Main as anything other than  being a man of many clubs and being moderately successful at some, poor at others. He has found his form at St Mirren and works his socks off for the team.  Thought he was excellent today. Whereas we have another Curtis who spends most of his time on his arse and struggles to do the  basics. Has shown nothing since he came to us and doubt he ever will. To keep Anderson on the bench was a serious mistake , we will regret it.

[Mixumac]

 

[Billy Jean King]

20 minutes ago, Monkey socks said:

Never thought of Curtis Main as anything other than  being a man of many clubs and being moderately successful at some, poor at others. He has found his form at St Mirren and works his socks off for the team.  Thought he was excellent today. Whereas we have another Curtis who spends most of his time on his arse and struggles to do the  basics. Has shown nothing since he came to us and doubt he ever will. To keep Anderson on the bench was a serious mistake , we will regret it.

I really don't get Bruce Anderson not starting for you guys. It feels like a positive before a ball is kicked for me when I saw he wasn't starting. You seem to be going for massive physicality but that just doesn't work in this division any more. 

[djchapsticks]

Anderson is a player who I feel would really fit our system. Bizarre that he hasn't started today.

[pozbaird]

43 minutes ago, Monkey socks said:

Never thought of Curtis Main as anything other than  being a man of many clubs and being moderately successful at some, poor at others. He has found his form at St Mirren and works his socks off for the team.  Thought he was excellent today. Whereas we have another Curtis who spends most of his time on his arse and struggles to do the  basics. Has shown nothing since he came to us and doubt he ever will. To keep Anderson on the bench was a serious mistake , we will regret it.

Curtis Main, once he shook off a niggling injury, has become a firm fan favourite. Even if he doesn’t score, his workrate, effort, attitude - he’s a feckin’ handful. It must be a Robinson thing. He has everyone working their socks off. No slackers in our team. Robinson has delivered a St Mirren team we are proud of - win, lose, or draw. 

Edited April 1, 2023 by pozbaird

[LIVIFOREVER]

5 hours ago, Lex said:

HT 3-0

Easy peasy never in doubt etc. What a difference Joe at centre back and Gogic in the middle makes, we’ve been excellent and well worth the scoreline.

Two VAR’d pens for hand ball expertly dispatched by our top scorer, O’Hara. Think the put the penalty in the same place both times, lovely and he’s been our best player.

Most unLivi like performance I’ve ever seen from Livi. They’ve been an absolute shambles, good.

 

47 minutes ago, Billy Jean King said:

I really don't get Bruce Anderson not starting for you guys. It feels like a positive before a ball is kicked for me when I saw he wasn't starting. You seem to be going for massive physicality but that just doesn't work in this division any more. 

 

37 minutes ago, djchapsticks said:

Anderson is a player who I feel would really fit our system. Bizarre that he hasn't started today.

Martindale seems to be the only one not seeing that line up was an absolute shitshow. Leaving Bruce on the bench till 71 mins was just taking the piss too.

Can only guess he somehow thought that starting XI and formation would get us a draw, sure as feck wasn't going for a win with it anyway, even taking out the 2 pens we were always losing today going into this game shitting the bed trying not to lose.

 

What's most frustrating is him not making drastic changes at HT and ripping up that starting formation, going back to 4 at the back and getting some ballers on, like Kelly, Bradley and Anderson, with Omeonga for grit chasing everything down in midfield, and Montano for Penrice, who was having a mare.

St Mirren had us beaten all over the pitch first half, we were fortunate only being 3 goals down at HT, although we also could've pulled one back with the ball hitting the bar and post. We got pressed and continually lost possession in dangerous areas, we just hadn't the players on the pitch to deal with the St Mirren intensity. Hoofing it up to Guthrie and Nouble was also a recipe for disaster, that's just not how we play our best stuff, in fact our best move first half came from us playing it up the wing and into the box, on the deck with passing football. 

 

2nd half Montano and Omeonga made a difference, and we had 2 good early chances, one of those needed to go in for us to get back in the game and put some pressure on St Mirren, but it just wasn't going to happen, Nouble got through on goal later with another great chance but completely fluffed it. Actually thought Guthrie had a decent game, but with Anderson sitting on the bench we didn't have anyone up there to get onto anything, Pitts was having to run through and try to play as a striker, but he isn't Bruce Anderson.

Looking good for St Mirren now with Hibs being gubbed by Motherwell, and moving up to 5th, Hearts losing to Killie too, so they have nothing to fear going to Tynecastle and going for a result there. I think we need to beat Motherwell next week and hope results elsewhere go our way, but our record against them is worse than it is against St Mirren away, so isn't looking good for us now. Just hope Martindale gets his head straight and sets up properly this time, and ffs get Bruce and Joel starting together up front.

Edited April 1, 2023 by LIVIFOREVER

[Menga Bus]

Martindale’s post match interview almost avoids taking responsibility for his decision making today which is the most worrying thing. Think everyone in the stadium was expecting changes after the 2nd goal, it was only ever getting worse from that point. The fact we finished with a back 5 is astonishing, 3 out of our best 4 attacking threats all on the bench until the 60th minute was mental. His full reasoning behind the change in shape to nullify st mirren is unbelievably negative, obviously we can’t do their own shape better than them. Playing players simply for height, and leaving ourselves with no attacking system is worryingly short sighted

Edited April 1, 2023 by Menga Bus

[Hendo]

37 minutes ago, pozbaird said:

Curtis Main, once he shook off a niggling injury, has become a firm fan favourite. Even if he doesn’t score, his workrate, effort, attitude - he’s a feckin’ handful. It must be a Robinson thing. He has everyone working their socks off. No slackers in our team. Robinson has delivered a St Mirren team we are proud of - win, lose, or draw. 

Main has only really done it consistently in a Robinson team, his career outside of that is distinctly average. He's similar to Nouble in that respect, he's only really performed when at Livi (and Arbroath on loan last season).

I know both are rumoured to be attracting English interest, but if they are looking at their career only and not the financial aspect (which they wont) they'd both be best staying put.

[LIVIFOREVER]

11 minutes ago, Menga Bus said:

Martindale’s post match interview almost avoids taking responsibility for his decision making today which is the most worrying thing. Think everyone in the stadium was expecting changes after the 2nd goal, it was only ever getting worse from that point. The fact we finished with a back 5 is astonishing, 3 out of our best 4 attacking threats all on the bench until the 60th minute was mental. His full reasoning behind the change in shape to nullify st mirren is unbelievably negative, obviously we can’t do their own shape better than them. Playing players simply for height, and leaving ourselves with no attacking system is worryingly short sighted

Same as he did in the cup final against St Johnstone, and it didn't work out well for us then either. The minute he starts with that pish he's making us weaker in attack, he played not to lose the game and got his arse handed to him, will he ever fucking learn though. Changing from how we've been best set up, to one that would hopefully stop St Mirren beating us, is just shitting the bed tactics. What's worse was him not ripping it to f**k up at HT, and persisting with the same formation, and only making two substitutions. 

 

He does this every so often, the overthinking stuff, and it annoys the shit out of me, but some of the fans today need to give their heads a wobble, the abuse they were giving the players and Martindale was ridiculous. For all his faults he has us in our 5th Premiership season, and has kept us comfortably up in every one of them, the swearing and calling him a baldy h*n was out of order. 

[Mainstand Sweary Mob]

What a game and even better that my son lead the team out to a victory. Not the 11-0 he predicted, but 3-0 will do nicely. 

[LIVIFOREVER]

2 minutes ago, Mainstand Sweary Mob said:

What a game and even better that my son lead the team out to a victory. Not the 11-0 he predicted, but 3-0 will do nicely. 

I laughed when he said 11-0, then when the 4th went in, but got disallowed for offside i said he's maybe not going to be far away with his prediction.

[LiviLion]

A lot of our success in our first couple seasons was when teams would try and "match" us, it never seemed to work as teams were almost actively nullifying their own strengths and playing us at what we're already good at. Given how often we benefited from it, it's a bit wild to me that Martindale done the exact same thing today; we have some good attacking players and I genuinely can't think of a reasonable explanation that we would actively weaken ourselves to "match" someone.

Only really faded in and out of my dodgy stream for the most part (think it was brave enough to keep it on at all after the first goal), but looked like St Mirren won that without really getting out of second gear. Was fully aware that even if we pulled one back, they'd probably just pop up the park and grab another goal or 2. This might finally be their year for top 6 and I'm going to sit fizzing about it.

 

Right, off to watch Hampden highlights. f**k club football

[pozbaird]

Quick question - had Brother Beaton awarded the first penalty without having had to be prodded (pun intented) into action by VAR, would that have been the quickest goal ever scored at the SMiSA DinkyDome in its history?

[sergie's no1 fan]

17 minutes ago, pozbaird said:

Quick question - had Brother Beaton awarded the first penalty without having had to be prodded (pun intented) into action by VAR, would that have been the quickest goal ever scored at the SMiSA DinkyDome in its history?

Kenny McLean scored against that rotten Hibs team within about 14 seconds iirc

[Guest]

1 hour ago, LIVIFOREVER said:

He does this every so often, the overthinking stuff, and it annoys the shit out of me, but some of the fans today need to give their heads a wobble, the abuse they were giving the players and Martindale was ridiculous. For all his faults he has us in our 5th Premiership season, and has kept us comfortably up in every one of them, the swearing and calling him a baldy h*n was out of order. 

There was one guy who'd filled his nappy first half and wouldn't shut the f**k up. I was sitting far away enough that I couldn't make out most of what he was yelling but he was still a right fucking nuisance.

[Captain_Sensible]

4 hours ago, FTOF said:

It was more to with Gogic being back in midfield rather than Shaugnessy being back in defence IMO. Although Shaugnessy is a better CH than Gogic IMO and did improve the defence. Although I thought both he and Dunne struggled to cope with Guthrie and Nouble, who are murder to play against.

If Gallagher is fully fit next week he will start as he's our best centre half.

We really missed O'Hara after the break which helped Livingston no end.

I thought Watt looked more up to speed and took his goal with a great deal of composure.

Baccus was excellent in the first half, but faded in the second. Understandable given his and Strain's lengthy journey home.

Small looking more up to speed too and had some great runs.

All in all a good day.

 

Thanks for the summary 

Couldn’t make it today. My kids couldn’t make it either. Couldn’t even find takers for the season tickets. 

Had to wade through a pile of shite to read a summary that was similar to my dads thoughts and similar to my Livi supporting mate’s  view on the game 

Then again, I think all of you are massive bellends, especially you  @FTOF

We won so that’s all matters!!

Edited April 1, 2023 by Captain_Sensible

[Torfason]

6 hours ago, Mainstand Sweary Mob said:

What a game and even better that my son lead the team out to a victory. Not the 11-0 he predicted, but 3-0 will do nicely. 

I heard his 11 nil and loved it. Hope he had a great day Bud!