St J v Livi - 30th Sept

[John Bonham]

We’ll start the game solidly but with 1 up front. Pass the ball about well then concede a soft goal after 20 mins. 
 

The game will be fairly even then at about minute 70 we’ll replace our 1 striker with another lone striker but push up a bit higher.

Somewhere between 80 and 90 mins we’ll concede a second soft as we’re pushed up so high and lack the pace to filter back. 
 

Macca to boot martindale in the puss in injury time. 
 

0-2 at full time and heads gone all over the east stand  

Edited September 28, 2023 by John Bonham

[ATLIS]

We don't seem to do well away from home and St Johnstone have been a pain for us for a while. Honestly can see us losing this, especially if Devlin is still out injured. If you see the teamsheet and Guthrie has started over Bruce then pack it up and go home, we're done.

Also to add, no need to worry about Nouble, he's absolutely chucked it. Performs when he feels like it.

[LIVIFOREVER]

56 minutes ago, ATLIS said:

We don't seem to do well away from home and St Johnstone have been a pain for us for a while. Honestly can see us losing this, especially if Devlin is still out injured. If you see the teamsheet and Guthrie has started over Bruce then pack it up and go home, we're done.

Also to add, no need to worry about Nouble, he's absolutely chucked it. Performs when he feels like it.

Dunno about that, we've won more pts away than at home, only away defeat was against Sevco. Coincidently Nouble had a blinder when we beat Hibs 3-2 at Easter Rd, and hasn't been great since.

Hard to gauge how we'll be without Devlin, if he misses this game, our games without him were against Celtic and Sevco, and both league defeats were against them, even the league game where Devlin played we lost 4-0. But we've been fine against the fellow diddy teams. Wouldn't surprise me if we got another draw here, hopefully we at least start with Anderson to give us a chance at winning. Wouldn't be averse to Guthrie and Anderson up front even.

Edited September 28, 2023 by LIVIFOREVER

[RandomGuy.]

Livingston effectively sacked Callum Davidson. The 4-2 win at McDiarmid seemed to break a lot of fans patience with him, then you obviously had the absolute clusterfuck of his final game against them too. 

Felt like we generally managed to match Livis intensity before though and managed to squeeze results out.

Does this squad have it in them?

Suspect we'll go 4-4-2 for this so a big challenge for a really poor defence, who Anderson should have a field day against, and the CMs selected. Think our best hope is Martindale going all galaxy brain and overthinking it.

[Valentino Bolognese]

Eternal optimism strikes again because it's close to the weekend.

Weather looks OK for the time of year. We've probably just been unlucky this season. Great result at Celtic eh?

That Sprangler guy looks good, and Remi's the best keeper ever to pull on a pair of gloves. What do you mean we've signed a fat striker that the manager's called out as a lazy fucker in the press? Great motivation! Stevie May up front on his own? No problem - he's had 2 years of practice now.

James Brown vs Joel Nouble? No contest!

The season starts on Saturday.

Saints 0 - 3 Livingston

[Costanza]

St Johnstone 0 Livingston 2, Chris Kane with both goals.

[LIVIFOREVER]

Anyone going for a 0-0 that would get football stopped.

[Muirton Saint]

4 hours ago, John Bonham said:

We’ll start the game solidly but with 1 up front. Pass the ball about well then concede a soft goal after 20 mins. 
 

The game will be fairly even then at about minute 70 we’ll replace our 1 striker with another lone striker but push up a bit higher.

Somewhere between 80 and 90 mins we’ll concede a second soft as we’re pushed up so high and lack the pace to filter back. 

After the game, Macca will reveal he saw "positives" in the performance after having 1 more shot on target than the week before.

[Troy.1995]

Even this early in the season this is huge for both teams.It seems there's a sense of non opptomism from both sets of fans.Granted Livi,s last two games were against the erse cheeks,but confidence isn't exactly sky high going into this. Saints have to turn at some point,and I just hope to god it's not tomorrow.Depends what Livi team turns up.Concede first,and Davies game plan goes out the window..

[PSJ.84]

7 hours ago, Valentino Bolognese said:

Remi's the best keeper ever to pull on a pair of gloves.

 

[Saint Huck]

27 minutes ago, Troy.1995 said:

Saints have to turn at some point,and I just hope to god it's not tomorrow.

Obviously not seen us recently.....

[Steve McQueen]

8 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

Livingston effectively sacked Callum Davidson. The 4-2 win at McDiarmid seemed to break a lot of fans patience with him

 

I forgot that game ended 4-2, would have said 3-0.

[RandomGuy.]

3 minutes ago, Steve McQueen said:

I forgot that game ended 4-2, would have said 3-0.

Aye. Changed to a back 4 at half time didnt we? And almost came back.

Was the start of a brief moment where it looked like Davidson had finally realised the back 5 was a dud.

Played a back 4 v Rangers the next game and looked decent with full backs and wingers working well.

Then he never started with it again until his last game.

Think ditching a promising set up to return to the back 5, after seeing the difference within the Livi game, finished him off for some.

[Valentino Bolognese]

1 hour ago, RandomGuy. said:

Aye. Changed to a back 4 at half time didnt we? And almost came back.

Was the start of a brief moment where it looked like Davidson had finally realised the back 5 was a dud.

Played a back 4 v Rangers the next game and looked decent with full backs and wingers working well.

Then he never started with it again until his last game.

Think ditching a promising set up to return to the back 5, after seeing the difference within the Livi game, finished him off for some.

Weirdly to me we're sort of in the opposite position now in that I'd be happy enough to see a back 5 tomorrow. Something like;

 

                                           Mitov
                        Dare Gordon Considine
     Wright     Phillips    Sven   Smith    Gallacher               
                               May    Striker#2

 

After Hibs I think we need to drop Brown until he's back up to speed and even then he's got to be a bench option, and Robinson to me is miles off this league. The issue with the back 4 is that we just don't have the full-backs to play it. At FB Dare might be a bombscare but I expect he'll step out the line and help Wright out.

Up front is the perennial issue. Assuming we're Kaneless, options are fairly limited. I guess we could try Costello in there, his energy might cause the type of chaos that Livi seemed to struggle with against Hibs the other night.

 

[RandomGuy.]

10 minutes ago, Valentino Bolognese said:

Weirdly to me we're sort of in the opposite position now in that I'd be happy enough to see a back 5 tomorrow.

Do Livingston not play with quite a narrow front line, almost a front 3?

Our back 5 was a disaster for being ripped apart by that type of attack last season and if youre selecting Wright, Gordon and Considine then youre virtually playing the same defence. 

[Valentino Bolognese]

Just now, RandomGuy. said:

Do Livingston not play with quite a narrow front line, almost a front 3?

Our back 5 was a disaster for being ripped apart by that type of attack last season and if youre selecting Wright, Gordon and Considine then youre virtually playing the same defence. 

Yeah that's true but options are pretty thin. Also 2 of the 3 started when we beat Livi at home at the end of last year - admittedly a bit of a dead rubber but still.

Just looking for options really as it's just not really working at the moment and we just don't seem to have the squad for the shape and style the manager wants quite yet.

[RandomGuy.]

5 minutes ago, Valentino Bolognese said:

Just looking for options really as it's just not really working at the moment and we just don't seem to have the squad for the shape and style the manager wants quite yet.

Aye its a bit of a shite situation for us really. Almost October and i dont think anyone really knows our strongest shape or line up, while a lot of players competing for position have the same strengths/weaknesses.

Could easily be another month before things settle down, if they ever do.

[LiviLion]

Really hope Devlin is fit and just wasn't being risked for the diddy cup. Martindale clearly doesn't rate Parkes or Kelly highly enough to play them (unless he was just trying to be smart with a back 4 against both cheeks), and Nottingham and Welch-Hayes are also injured - and neither have really played to show if they're actually good enough in any case.

George

de Lucas  -  Obileye  -  Devlin/Parkes

Brandon  -  Holt  -  Shinnie  -  Penrice

Kelly  -  Nouble

Anderson

Can't decide if we'll continue to be poor in attack or if we can actually take advantage of St Johnstone's shite defence.

[The Saintee]

Big game for us. Big players need to step up.

 

Considine OG/pen/red card incoming.

[Durnford]

Where's the best place to park? Last time it took me 90 minutes to get out of the car park and the supermarket (Tesco's?) said they dont allow match day parking there anymore.