2011 – The Review
With 2010 ending in a shock Scottish Cup exit at the hands of Elgin and a hard-fought 2-2 draw away to Alloa, a trip North offered the Lions a chance to start the year with a win against a Peterhead side who had only managed one victory in their previous seven outings. However, a Ryan Strachan double and a strike from David Ross ensured our first match of 2011 started in horrific fashion.
This defeat sparked Gary Bollan into the signing of frontman Kenny Deuchar and he became an instant hit with the Livi faithful, grabbing a hat-trick away to East Fife only hours after putting pen to paper as we ran out 4-2 winners at New Bayview.
Five consecutive wins followed, the most notable of which coming at Somerset Park as goals from Deuchar, Bobby Barr and Liam Fox secured an emphatic win against promotion rivals Ayr United. A cold, midweek match away to Brechin ended this run however, as a Craig Molloy goal earned another title hopeful a valuable three points in the race for the Championship. This defeat proved to be our last in Division Two though as Bollan's boys went on to pick up 36 points from the remaining 42 that were on offer.
A 5-1 victory over Peterhead followed by a 0-0 draw with Brechin set up the chance to clinch the league title with a win away to Stenhousemuir in early April. The midfield trio of Fox, David Sinclair and Kyle Jacobs produced the goods to seal our second consecutive league trophy and book our place back in the second tier of Scottish football. With other teams still vying for the play-off places, Bollan stayed true to his word, playing his strongest select possible in the remaining five matches – knocking in 11 goals in the process.
A 3-1 win at Recreation Park on the last day of the season saw Joe Hamill and Raffaele De Vita make their final appearances for the club as they joined Aaron Conway, David Cowan, Neil Hastings, Chris Malone, Craig McDowall, Mick O'Byrne, Robbie Winters and Devon Jacobs in leaving for pastures new.
An unusual 'drama-free' close season came and passed as Bollan strengthened his squad with the additions of Johnny Brown, Rory Boulding and Andy McNeil. Emphatic first round cup victories, in which we notched 11 goals, seen us progress to round two of the Scottish Communities League Cup and the Ramsdens Challenge Cup before playing host to Queen of the South in our opening league match of the 2011/2012 season.
This game would prove to be a good indicator of what would lie ahead for the Lions as our undefeated home record was nearly lost. Queens raced into a 2-0 lead before half-time but a long range effort from Sinclair and a late Iain Russell penalty salvaged a point and gave the players an insight of what they’d be up against on the park in the first division. A 5-0 cup win against Stirling Albion came before Morton put an end to an 18 match unbeaten streak as we sunk to a 2-1 loss at Cappielow. A scintillating second half performance wasn’t enough to sneak a point and left the players wondering what they needed to do to seal a league win. Cue our old friends Dundee…
Having started sluggishly in the first two league games, Bollan sent his starting eleven out a few minutes before kick-off to carry out some sprints, hoping to get the players heart-rate up and have them racing out the traps when the referee started the game. What a decision that proved to be!
With less than 15 minutes on the clock, a 2-0 lead had the Livi support in dreamland. A Bobby Barr shot could only be parried by goalkeeper Rab Douglas and despite the best efforts of Craig McKewon to clear the rebound, Iain Russell was there first to side foot the ball into the empty net. 10 minutes later, Russell turned provider, this time sliding a brilliant through-ball into the path of Keaghan Jacobs who in turn, played in Kenny Deuchar and the big man nodded the ball home after Douglas saved his first shot. When Deuchar slid in a third goal on the hour mark, it looked like game over. However goals from Gary Irvine and Stephen O’Donnell sparked an unlikely comeback from the away side and as they desperately pressed for an equaliser, Livi caught them out. Making the most of some sloppy play Sinclair and Jacobs combined with the latter smashing home a fourth goal and sealing the win.
This win was followed up with three consecutive 1-1 draws in the league, two of which served up last-gap equalisers with mixed outcomes. A late Boulding goal away to nine-man Hamilton salvaged a point at New Douglas Park but a Mark Millar penalty a week later would snatch away three home points which seemed all but in the bag for the Lions.
Kyle Jacobs' wonder strike was enough to see off an impressive Partick side but a home draw with Raith Rovers and our Ramsdens Cup Semi-Final defeat against Hamilton saw Gary Bollan dip into the 'free agents' market, recruiting Mark Fotheringham and Maurice Ross on short-term deals. 'Fozzy', who has played every game since signing, instantly showed his class but couldn't turn these draws into wins as another two games produced only two points, 0-0 away to Ayr and 1-1 at home to Morton. Infact, it would take Fozzy getting on the score sheet himself before the Lions would seal a big three points from an away game in Dumfries. An early Marc McNulty strike sent us on our way before a blocked shot wasn't dealt with by the Queens defence and Fotheringham lashed the ball home.
This set us up nicely for a trip to play an in-form Falkirk side and it proved to be a game that will live long in the memory of those who made the short trip. An absolutely disastrous first half meant that Falkirk had cruised into a three goal lead as the teams disappeared for half-time. A tactical change from Bollan offered a sign that the Lions weren't going to lie down and they certainly didn't. A typical, mazy run from Bobby Barr ended with the winger firing past McGovern in the Falkirk goal. This was quickly followed up by a brilliant counter-attacking move which sent Keaghan Jacobs free in the Falkirk half and he let rip with a thunderbolt to reduce the deficit to just one. When Barr was fouled on the edge of the area with 15 minutes left, up stepped Fotheringham to curl a beauty of a free-kick beyond McGovern and send the away fans wild. As thoughts of an unthinkable winner were doing the rounds in the stand, it was to be heartbreak for Bollan and his troops as David Weatherston struck to win the match for the Bairns.
A real sickener for Livi but encouraging signs that the fight was there when needed and this carried on with a 1-0 home win over Hamilton a week later.
The Scottish Cup offered up a trip into the unknown with a trip to take on Irvine Meadow XI in round three. Any chances of an upset were quickly dashed though as a first half McNulty hat-trick was complimented by strikes from Boulding, Deuchar and Barr.
Following these wins, our 20 month long unbeaten home record came to an abrupt halt as Ross County scored three second-half goals at the Braidwood Motor Company Stadium to cement their place at the top of the tree. A dubious red-card for Boulding at 0-0 spoiled what had been, until then, an evenly contested match but the one man advantage was enough for County to ease to victory.
At time of print, game 46 of 2011 (vs Hamilton away on 26/12) hadn't yet been played meaning our last match of note was an impressive 1-0 win at Starks Park against Raith Rovers. A rare Craig Barr goal sealed the points in a game we dominated for large spells meaning as the year draws out, we're sitting in the middle of the pack in fifth place.
Our 45 competitive games in 2011 have produced a great record of 27 wins, 10 draws and only 8 defeats. In terms of goals, we've hit the net an impressive 101 times, only conceding on 42 occasions. These 101 goals have come courtesy of 17 different scorers with Iain Russell topping the charts with 25 goals to his name, followed by Kenny Deuchar with 16 and Bobby Barr, Raffaele De Vita and Marc McNulty all with 8 each.
A successful year for Livingston FC – a league title, a cup semi-final appearance and so far, some stability both on, and off the pitch. As we welcome Falkirk today in our opening match of 2012, I wouldn't mind finishing this year with the same achievements...
No comments:
Post a Comment