Monday 8 October 2012

Cowdenbeath – Saturday 6th October 2012

Today we welcome Colin Cameron and his Cowdenbeath side to the Braidwood Motor Company Stadium. Incredibly, this is the first time we’ve hosted the Blue Brazil in the league since a 2-1 win way back in the 95-96 season. As both sides have moved up and down the leagues, we’ve managed to miss each other on league duty, although our paths have crossed in the cup on three occasions with Livi running out 2-0 winners each time.

History counts for nothing in football though and Cowdenbeath will look to this seasons form and know that they have every right to fancy their chances today given the fact they currently sit one place above us in the league.

A 4-0 opening day home defeat at the hands of Dunfermline appeared to be a reminder of just how ruthless this division can be and really sparked some fight into the Cowden side who went on to win their next three games. 3-0 away wins at Dumbarton and Airdrie fell either side of a 1-0 home victory over Hamilton and went a long way in starting to prove many doubters wrong. Much like Airdrie and Dumbarton, Cowdenbeath were already written off as relegation strugglers before a ball was even kicked but they’ve shown with those results that they really can hold their own in this league.

A trip to Firhill proved that point even further. With Partick disposing of teams with relative ease up ‘til then, Cameron’s men went there and can consider themselves desperately unfortunate not to have come back with at least a point as a penalty and own goal were needed for Thistle to pick up a hard fought 2-1 win.

Just last Saturday, the fighting spirit amongst the squad was highlighted again as Cowden came from a goal behind to claim a point at home to pre-season title favourites Falkirk. That draw meant that point number ten was added to the tally and the side currently sit in 5th place, two points and two goals better off than us aswell as leading the way between the three promoted sides.

Aswell as a good start to the league campaign, Cowdenbeath also find themselves in the semi-finals of the Ramsdens Cup. Having sent Alloa, East Fife and East Stirling packing so far, Partick Thistle will visit Central Park a week tomorrow as the sides clash for a place in April’s final.

A few familiar faces may be on show today too. Cameron’s assistant is none other than former Lions midfielder Lee Makel. After leaving us, Lee joined Swedish Division 1 Norra
side Ostersunds FK as a player-coach before moving back to Scotland to join
Cowdenbeath in January 2011. When Cameron was appointed manager at the start of last season, Makel was quickly appointed as his assistant and went on to help guide the team to the second division title.

On the field, goalkeeper Craig Wight joins defenders Kenny Adamson and David Cowan in making up the ex-Livi contingent. Wight and Cowan both played here just a few weeks ago for Cowdenbeath’s reserve side, helping to claim a 1-0 victory over our reserves – a score line which would be very much welcomed here today by the Fife side.

Having picked up more points on the road than at home, scored more goals on the road than at home and conceded less goals on the road than at home, it’s safe to assume that the Cowdenbeath squad will be full of confidence coming here and will relish the chance to continue that good away form with the target of a win feeling very much achievable.

As published in 'ROAR' - the Livingston FC matchday magazine.

Thursday 4 October 2012

Dumbarton – Saturday 29th September 2012

For the second time already this season, Dumbarton travel to the Braidwood Motor Company Stadium - this time however, they do so on league business.

It was just over four weeks ago that The Sons went down 3-2 in extra-time here and they’ll be desperate to better that score line today and take something home with them.

Jim Lister scored that night and he currently tops the Dumbarton goal scoring charts in the league with two goals. However, those two goals account for half of those scored in the league to date.

A 3-3 draw with Hamilton last weekend provided a first point of the season and normally, that would have been something to cheer about, but given they led the game 3-1 going into the 88th minute, it was more a case of two points dropped than one point gained.

The Dumbarton fans have had a rough time of it so far this season. The fixture list looked to have been kind to them with opening matches against fellow promoted teams Airdrie United and Cowdenbeath but after going down 4-1 and 3-0 to those teams respectively, back to back away games against Partick and Morton didn’t look so exciting. Another couple of 3-0 defeats in those games followed by a 2-0 loss at home to Dunfermline lead Dumbarton to the game against Hamilton last weekend.

Taking those results into consideration, a point will still have been welcomed by manager Alan Adamson but the manner in which the draw was conceded will have left a bitter taste in his mouth. In saying that, the point does get them up and running in the league table and the fans will have been delighted to see some goals after going four in the league without finding the net.

Adamson will bring his squad here today with a bit of a spring in their step, especially given the fact they’ve already matched us over ninety minutes this season. Bryan Prunty grabbed his first league goal of the season in that draw against Hamilton so he’ll also be brimming with confidence ahead of this one. The frontman was the clubs top goalscorer in the second division last season so he’ll be looking to add to his tally now that he’s off the mark in the first division.

As mentioned, Jim Lister has found the net a couple of times already this season for Dumbarton and he’ll be someone else who’s looking to add to his total today. A new signing in the summer from Brechin City, Adamson was a long-time admirer of Lister before finally bringing him to Dumbarton and there’s no doubt the big striker will cause our defence problems with his physical presence.

It was only seventeen months ago that Dumbarton last visited the BMCS on league duty, a day where a 1-1 draw seen the Lions complete the 2010/2011 second division season with an unbeaten home record and lift the league trophy. Now, both sides are plying their trade in Scotland’s second tier and The Sons will be desperate to better that draw and claim their first three points of the season aswell as their first three points here since a 2-1 win back in April 1997. Having come so close to that win last weekend, Adamson and his squad will fancy their chances given the heavy defeat we took at East End Park last week coupled with extra ninety minutes played earlier in the week at Tynecastle.

With both sides arguably needing the win as much as each other, an exciting game lies in prospect.
As published in 'ROAR' - the Livingston FC matchday magazine.

Partick Thistle – Saturday 15th September 2012

Today we welcome early pacesetters Partick Thistle to The Braidwood Motor Company Stadium with the Firhill side looking to continue their impressive 100% start to the new league season.

A sixth place finish last term would have disappointed manager Jackie McNamara and he was quick to strengthen his squad over the summer, adding no fewer than seven players to the pool.

Stevie Craig, a familiar face to the Livi faithful, followed in his father’s footsteps joining Thistle on loan from Ross County and has already notched up three goals in two games. Alongside Craig, the additions of Ross Forbes and Steven Lawless from Motherwell, Hugh Murray from St Mirren and Sean Welsh from Hibs have helped to, not only bolster McNamara’s squad, but improve it and so it’s no great surprise to see them top of the pile in the early stages.

The fixture generator tossed up a difficult start for Thistle which seen them host Falkirk on day one then travel to Dunfermline on day two. With those two sides being deemed joint favourites for the title before the season started, what a statement the Jags made, comfortably dispatching of Falkirk 3-1 at Firhill before edging out Dunfermline by one goal to nil at East End Park.

Of course, beating the top teams has to be followed up with wins against teams at the other end so with a 3-0 victory against Dumbarton and a 4-0 win against Hamilton to follow; the quality of McNamara’s squad certainly looks like one that could maintain a challenge at the top end this season.

The eleven league goals they’ve scored in those four games have come from six different players, proving that there’s not a sole reliance on one or two men to cover the scoring duties. Just as impressive is that only a Lyle Taylor strike for Falkirk on the opening day has beaten Scott Fox in the Thistle goal so far – a stat McNamara will be more than delighted with having been a defender himself.

An incredible game at Hampden against Queens Park in the Ramsdens Cup last month also identified the fighting spirit that runs through the team. Having been leading 3-2 with ten minutes to play, Queens Park grabbed two late goals to go 4-3 up as the game entered injury-time but not to be outdone, stoppage time strikes from Stuart Bannigan and the impressive Chris Erskine sealed a dramatic 5-4 victory and a place in the quarter-finals.

The Jags since won that quarter-final match, a 3-0 home victory over Raith Rovers, and now await the semi-final draw where a potential Glasgow derby could be on the cards if they find themselves paired with third divisions’ only remaining representatives, The Rangers.

The one blip that has occurred on an otherwise perfect start though was a second round extra-time defeat at the hands of a young Hamilton Accies side. Despite dominating for large spells of the game and arguably being the better team over the 120 minutes, an Ali Crawford strike in the second period of extra-time sent the Jags out of the Scottish Communities Cup. As mentioned, Thistle did go on to beat Hamilton 4-0 just four days later but there will have been a bitter sense of disappointment at not having made it to at least the round where the ‘big guns’ entered.

Thistle only managed to pick up three points from a possible nine against Livingston last season, none of which came on the road, so McNamara will be looking to change that and pick up a Jags victory at the BMCS for the first time since a 4-2 win back in February 2009.

As published in 'ROAR' - the Livingston FC matchday magazine.

Airdrie United – Saturday 18th August 2012

Sunday 20th May 2012 – Airdrie United 1-4 Dumbarton. That was it – the promotion dream was over for another year.

Fast forward two months and the demise of Rangers, coupled with the newco’s placement in the bottom tier of Scottish football, means that the fixture above counted for nothing and today we host an Airdrie United side who, for a third time, have benefited from
other club's misfortunes.

The 2007-2008 season ended with the enforced relegation of Gretna to the Third Division and Airdrie, as losing play-off finalists were promoted to the First Division despite having lost the final to Clyde. The following season, Airdrie lost to Ayr United in the relegation play-off final and were all set for the plunge to division two but again, they were given a reprieve after we, ourselves, were handed a double relegation to the third division meaning Airdrie kept their place in the first.

This Summer of course, after that loss to Dumbarton, ex-Livi defender Jimmy Boyle began to shape his team for another promotion push in division two but very late in the day, fate again dealt in Airdrie’s favour as they were promoted to division one to take Dundee’s place for the season ahead.

Many Diamonds fans, and indeed Chairman Jim Ballantyne, will argue that in actual fact, the Summer of uncertainty for them along with the timing of the promotion has meant Boyle and his assistant Alan Lawrence haven’t had a great deal of time to prepare for life in division one and may struggle to make the step up accordingly.

Mixed fortunes in both cups so far have also added to that feeling of unknown around New Broomfield. A solid defensive showing and a late strike from Willie McLaren clinched an impressive 1-0 victory in the Ramsdens Cup first round against Hamilton at New Douglas Park and set-up a winnable, second round tie away to East Stirlingshire. However, the following week a trip to Firhill to take on Queens Park in the first round of the Scottish Communities League Cup seen the Diamonds fall at the first hurdle, going down 3-2 in extra-time to the third division outfit.

Airdrie travel to the Braidwood Motor Company Stadium today with a couple of familiar faces in their ranks. Michael Hart, a stalwart in our first SPL season, is a new signing for Airdrie and he’s likely to start today on the right hand side of the Diamonds back-line. He’ll be joined in defense by Cammy MacDonald who moved to Airdrie midway through last season and helped spearhead that unlikely push for the play-offs which effectively resulted in promotion – eventually.

Airdrie are also buoyed by the signings of Paul Di Giacomo from Morton and goalkeeper Kenny Arthur from Grimsby Town along with the resigning of both Willie McLaren and David Lilley. The latter pair both left the club at the end of last season but talks were ongoing throughout the summer and Boyle managed to convince both to return for the first division battle.

A quick look at the bookies prices and there’s no surprise that Airdrie are the favourites to lose that particular battle. However, they’ll be looking to last season where they took points from both of the other promoted sides, Cowdenbeath and Dumbarton, and hoping that if they can win the battles against those two, they’d be giving themselves a chance of staying up come May.

The sides last met on league duty in our second division title winning season only two years ago and we picked up four wins out of four – the Diamonds will be hoping to avoid a similar stat this season with a win today.

As published in 'ROAR' - the Livingston FC Matchday Magazine.