The Rangers v Livi - Sat 16th Jan '16

Much as it pains me to say it, I fear we are literally on a hiding to nothing 5-0 to the unwashed

I'll be there, despite the inevitable outcome. First penalty claim will be inside 5 minutes. First penalty award in the first half. I remember, some time ago, a Rangers fan calling a phone-in to complain that they'd had 8 penalty claims in a particular game but hadn't been given any of them - the idea presumably that if you claim often enough, you should surely be given at least one of them. Whether any merited a penalty was clearly irrelevant. That's par for the course and no doubt there'll be plenty of claims tomorrow. After all, the Old Firm don't have enough of an advantage already.
Prediction for the final score? Them - several; Us - zero.
Even so, looking forward to seeing how David Hopkin's team lines up and how they approach it.
Come on Livi!

Buchanan pulled 1 back and the flow of goals every 10 mins appears to be over, White has also netted but was adjudged to have fouled the keeper so it was chalked off

Horrible first half, second half was much better after Mullen and Buchanan came on, I think Hopkin blundered playing White up front alone in the first half. We had no out ball and couldn't take the pressure off our defence.

Only good thing that happened on Saturday was the Alloa game being abandoned when it looked like they had closed the gap to one point on us, i'll take good fortune wherever I can get it. Mon the Ton on the rearranged game.

Yep, finances have gone down the toilet since then too, every season the playing budget has been cut and the quality of player we can afford has suffered accordingly. Attendances are dropping, we're fighting relegation two seasons running, oh the joys of being a Livi fan.

If Bollan was such a good manager, surely he'd have done more than tread the lower end of the Scottish leagues in the years since leaving us?

Hughes would have been mad to turn down the opportunity he got while at us. A shame too because if that hadn't come up, I think he'd have had us in a much better place than we ended up.

I suspect we were only ever going to be a shop window for Hughes. Like Auldnick I think he inherited a decent team at ICT. Time will tell if he can maintain it.

Hartlepool were on a 20 match winless run before Hughes came in and already looked odds on to be relegated. He won manager of the month there in his time - not bad for a side who couldn't buy a win previous to his arrival. They had all but started planning for life in the league below when he came in.

He also took Falkirk into the Premier League and to a Scottish cup final before guiding Hibs into the Europa League at his first attempt - two sides who are now in the Championship...

He then got Inverness in their first ever league cup final, won their first ever Scottish Cup, won both Scottish Manager of the Year awards and took Inverness into Europe for their first time ever. You're surely not going to tell me all of that has come from inheriting good teams?

I'd have Hughes (and Collins) over Bollan and anyone we've had since all day long.

On the other point, you could also argue that Bollan had us in the bottoms tiers of Scottish football with squads which were very obviously of Championship quality. The result of that was a team which was winning on a regular basis so in turn, people were more interested. It was never going to be such a walk in the park in the Championship and as we started to not win games every single week, folk naturally start losing interest so I'd argue that also had an impact on things (as well as the off field nonsense).

Surely you're not suggesting John Hughes is to blame for us being poor at home 3 years after he's left...?

Well it was their responsibility during their tenure and we haven't got out of the bind since.

In all honesty I believe our rather large and mostly empty stadium with a decent playing surface is a problem. The opposition enjoy playing here because of the surface and we seem to crumble as the predominant atmosphere is one of hostility from sections of the home fans as soon as anything starts to go wrong. We all know how frustrating it is when we go behind but that is when the team needs the support to rally behind them.

The opposition usually only have a small support with them so little atmosphere plays into their hands. Whenever the bigger sides come with their large support we tend to play better and our fans are largely supportive even in adversity because losing to the big clubs is largely expected.

Which brings it back to expectations, unrealistic expectations lead to increased pressure.which leads to poor performances and results.