Livi v St Mirren - Sat 20th Apr '19

Sideways.

I didn’t think it was our worst performance, the 1-0 loss to St Johnstone was much worse.

The long ball to Hardie was the wrong way to play but wasn’t the root of the problem though. Our goal was a peach, our 10 men ripped them apart. If we had continued to play in that way I have absolutely no doubt we’d have got something from the game. But the management team decided to sacrifice Lawless despite the fact he had been causing Saints problems. They should have replaced Sibbald as he isn’t a left back or a LWB in a million years, he doesn’t have the pace for it or the defensive discipline. We said that as soon as they made the change. Lo & behold their equaliser came because an extremely average player went past Sibbald like he wasn’t there.

As soon as we took Lawless off we sat back & gave them all the possession & started lumping long balls to Hardie who needs another player along side him to be at his best. We didn’t get players up to support him quickly enough so he was relying on defensive errors. We gave them freedom to play as they wanted as we didn’t press anywhere like we were doing at the start of the season or last season. So we handed them the initiative. For the most part it was working but the lack of pressing gave Mullen the time & space to turn & rifle in his winner...we all know, despite his inconsistency & deplorable diving, that he is capable of this. It also gave the other lad the time & space to fire in his shot that Kelly fumbled for Jackson to grab the 3rd.

So while the management team deserve praise for a job well done over the season, they also deserve the blame for making the wrong decisions yesterday about the first sub & the tactics after that substitution.

Now, setting all that to one side... the red card was a complete joke & I hope the club intend to appeal it. From my position in C2 it looked a fair tackle & the Sky Sports News video I saw last night seems to bear that out, Halkett slides alongside the St M lad & makes good contact on the ball, any contact between the players is purely them coming together because they were both trying to get the ball. Collum almost had his card out before the tackle was made he was so keen to brandish it. (I exaggerate the swiftness of him getting the card out but he couldn’t wait to show it). Our initial reaction to it was good though, resulting in the goal... sadly the management then made the wrong choices.

On the bright side, Dundee lost & are now 6 points adrift. So,,, let’s all laugh at Dundee...