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.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment