Livi v Albion Rovers - Sat 15th Oct '16

I think they have a silly name made up of two suffixes, just shows they aren't particularly keen on being openly associated with Coatbridge...and who can blame them?

Well that was our first game back this season and it wasn't very good to say the least. It seems to get colder down there each year as well.

I couldn't make it today but by all accounts*, we were dismal this afternoon.

*half a dozen social media comments I've read.

After going to the game in Belfast last week I was really looking forward to today. However everything about today was flat - everyone looked off the pace, too many passes went astray, Livingston always second to every ball and even the home support, myself included were flat. I would maybe consider starting with Knox, Watt and Carrick next week in what is a big game. What do people think? Need players, management team and fans to be up for it next week that's for sure.

Halkett and the rest of the defence had more holes than a colander, Kelly is the only member of the defence that wasn't very poor defensively. The midfield 5 were hardly in the game as both sides went back to front for most of the game. Byrne is composed on the ball but didn't actually do anything with it. At least Pittman tried to show some drive. Miller had a stinker whether as part of the 5 man midfield in the first half or the flat back 4 in the second. When we went to a back four, Albion went with 4 up front when their keeper had the ball. This left 2 in midfield that were outnumbered but it didn't matter because both sides were going back to front. The difference was they had 4 guys occupying our 4 defenders while we had 2 wee guys losing almost every high ball to the 4 bigger Albion defenders; but we didn't change it.

It was also clear that when we got the ball down and passed it and when we used the wings that we caused them problems but we didn't do it often enough, which makes it clear that Hopkin got his tactics hopelessly wrong. Young on the other hand kept it tight at the back, literally as they really only defended the width of the box and that is all they needed to do because of our persistence in trying to go through the middle.

Why were we not shooting when it was clear that their keeper wasn't comfortable catching the ball and following up on any spillages. We did it once and slow reactions meant we didn't really get the follow up shot to be meaningful and it was cleared. We troubled them on each wing in the first half but it was Crighton and Longridge that got the crosses in because Mullin and Cadden refused to take their full backs on and kept coming inside to the congested middle and playing right into their game plan. We only got success going through the middle once and were unlucky to see Mullen's attempt hit the post, but when we kept failing to get through that way and got good crosses in on the two occasions we went wide, why didn't the manager relay the instructions to go wide? In fact why did he play with two wingers and have them continually cutting inside?

All in all the tactics were wrong and weren't executed very well. We got what we deserved...nothing.

Ewan summed it up, second to every loose ball and couldn't pass water never mind a football.... And the fans were as flat as the performance. But I wouldn't be starting Knox, Watt or Carrick next week, I might bring Carrick on earlier if we are getting nowhere going forward.

Please go watch Livi train during the week and see if you can spot anything which will contribute to the bad results.
When you have done so please post your thoughts for discussion.

We've the same amount of points after nine games as Bollan had when we last played in this division.

There was a fine line in this game too, Mullen scores with that one that hit the post and we'd have gone onto win the game comfortably, but it hit the post and they broke up the pitch and scored, three times we almost scored and then they hit us on the counter and scored twice.