Livi v Brechin - Sat 17th Sep '16

Let's get into them #COLTS

Don't forget that even if we win and if Alloa better our result they will go back to the top

We should be pumping mobs like this.

#COLTS

I wasn't at Hampden but based on the other league games which I have seen, this was our toughest game so far. I expected Brechin to sit in but they came at us, they closed us down and made life difficult. That said I thought we were worth our half time lead. Second half started and as usual we had a lull and for a spell they were on top. Pittman then crafted and scored his superb goal and I thought we would maybe kick on for another goal or two and we certainly had opportunities. Then they pulled one back which was well taken by them but poor defensively from us but we weathered the storm and managed the game out to claim the win.

Darren Dods has Brechin well drilled and fit as fiddles (whatever that actually means) - not sure why anyone would think we would be much fitter than them, there really is nothing between PT & FT fitness levels these days for one thing and it's far too early in the season anyway for another.

Special credit to Kelly for an excellent save in the first half and calmness & skill in the second at a short back pass. Special credit also to whoever it was that blocked the big number 10's effort after he rounded Kelly. Special credit to Miller & Byrne again in the middle of the park and another excellent performance from Pittman with a tireless shift, superb goal & covering every blade of grass. Mullen and Buchanan also worked hard and Lithgow was the pick of the back 3 for most of the match.

East Fife away next? Can't make that one...hopefully the boys can do the business again.

I think we made it tough for ourselves by not capitalising on our first half dominance and scoring enough goals, we should've been by up 2 or 3 at HT. Cadden ripped them apart on the wing and Lithgow's long throw ins caused them trouble, only being 1 up gave them hope of getting something and they could easily have gotten a point in the second half, in fact they almost got an equalizer just before HT but for Kelly getting down low to a ball going in our bottom corner.

They're a route one team with big punts up the pitch to run onto but they are quite clinical and accurate with their shots, they wont score the amount of goals Alloa and Livi do but you can see how they get wins by the odd goal. Pittman gave us breathing space with his wonderful struck goal but they got back into the game minutes later to make it a bit nervy for us. Buchanan should've squared it to give us the 2 goal cushion but he chose to try and score, bugger was desperate to get on 5 goals after Mullen and Pittman had scored but I wish he'd be less greedy at times.

Hopkin is showing a different side to Livi this season, being able to see out games, his substitutions were to hang onto what we had rather than trying to score more, Watt for Mullin, Sinclair for Cadden, and Allen for Buchanan, we'd all like to see us scoring more goals but perhaps we'd concede a goal and drop points so it is good to see that side of us.

Hard fought for points in a physical game, should be another tough game next week too, East Fife look a bit like QP, well organized and hard to break down.

JS.... How would you describe our opening goal? Big punt up the pitch which Buchanan ran onto (admittedly with a superb first touch) and took a shot, spilled by the keeper and Mullen following up on the rebound.... You don't get much more route 1 than that. One of my favourite ever Livi goals was a goalie punt up the pitch, one bounce and Bingham leathered it into the net. If it works, play to your strengths. Aside from that Brechin had some decent passing moves during the game as well.

LJ.... Aye, when Kelly had the ball Brechin did indeed have 11 behind the ball but they did not park the bus, which is the point I was making.

Further observations that I didn't mention earlier: Their number 4 should have been booked for continually holding and pushing but the ref hardly ever penalised him. I lost count of the throw ins that were given the wrong way. I didn't think Buchanan going down in the box was a pen but neither do I think he dived, there was no need to dive as a shot was on for him. I did think there was a decent penalty shout in the second half.

I think you are being harsh on Brechin because I distinctly remember them passing their way through us in the build up to Kelly's superb 1st half save and at other times in the game. We hit a fair number of long balls as well, so we shouldn't bemoan the opposition doing it.

I also remember Alloa going route 1 on a number of occasions last week, which worked straight into our hands as Halkett had Spence in his pocket all game and Crighton & Lithgow were equally comfortable in dealing with them. When Alloa did pass the ball they looked decent but they lacked a final ball for most of the match.

Frankly, IMO we are the best team I have seen in our division this season. Hopefully that proves to be enough when the dust settles at the end of the season.

Yep Alloa hit a lot of high balls up to their striker which we easily dealt with, I was surprised they kept doing that with us having Crighton and Lithgow who are well known for being good in the air. They were very slick when they passed it on the ground though and have looked the best team we've played. I just don't rate Brechin, expected them to look better but my overall impression of them was boot it up the pitch all game for their striker to chase down. It wasn't over the top like Alloa so credit them with that, they didn't just hit it high up the middle for our back 3 to header straight back up the pitch, they were a bit more clever that way.

I think we're the best team in the league too, the fact we've just beaten our two main rivals proves that, and we should be sitting top by at least a point too, with the officials getting Mullin's goal being offside wrong, imo we'd have gone on to win that game 2-1 if that goal stood, same as Alloa have just done, the momentum was with us at that point and the goal would've spurred us on to get another. That's football though, hopefully these decisions balance out.

Flashing Blade, from what I've heard the prev board were taking 20% from gates when we were in the Championship so maybe we could balance the books in the Championship, our att figures certainly didn't match what I thought they were in games against Hearts a couple of seasons back.