weeyin

It is (7am kick off for us East Coast Liberal Elites).

The plastic at Livi is much worse than the plastic at Accies. And they obviously prepared it to make it as slow and sticky as possible (which is where the FIFA rules about standards become a mockery). But don't believe me - Alan Preston in his match report commented that Livi's pitch should not be allowed. And the report from the Herald closes with: The stats of all the teams that "pumped Livi" there last season are that they lost 7 at home, 4 of them by one goal. And Gary Holt says it gives them a big advantage - but what he does he know?

I've no expectations of winning this (but always live in hope). Neither team's results from the weekend, however, will have much bearing on the match. From what I saw of the matches in the Betfred, St Johnstone have been uncharacteristically dire so far this season. While Celtic will be heavy favourites, we've a pretty decent record against them at Fir Park in recent times.

Swindon had a season in the Premier League when I worked in that region in the late 80s/early 90s, but went on the slide after that - or, returned to their regular form. That was shortly after their chairman was jailed for making illegal payments to players. (They also had a brief revival when Malpas was the manager). They are pretty much a middling League Two side these days.

Those 3 in the Premiership. Quite a few more in the lower leagues. Not sure if this is a definitive list, but I came across this: Airdrieonians Alloa Athletic Annan Athletic Clyde East Fife Edinburgh City Falkirk Forfar Athletic Hamilton Accies Kilmarnock Livingston Montrose Queen of the South Stenhousemuir Advantage or not (and given the league positions of Accies and Livi last season even that is debatable), it's the fact that players hate playing on them and fans hate watching games on them that should lead to their demise. The smaller clubs that still have grass offer a better spectacle most weeks than the bigger clubs with plastic. I watched the Dunfermline game last Friday and it was miles better than anything I've ever seen on artificial pitches. It will take a collective action from the fans, the players or the TV companies for things to change - but unfortunately I don't think anything will happen soon.

Ross County play on grass, so no comparison there. Also, from what I saw in the league cup groups, they play a bit of football. Accies pitch is bad, but not quite as bad as Livi's. They also don't play as direct as Livi - especially since Brian Rice took over. I agree teams need to adapt to some extent, but as it was the first SPFL game many of our team had played they literally had no idea what they were going to be facing. So nothing really to adapt to/from. Although it could be argued that we did adapt better in the second half. When we are in the unfortunate position of having to play there again, I'm sure last weekend's experience will benefit everyone involved. I also fully expect every team to struggle there as much as they did last season. It's the most anti "anti-football" I can ever remember seeing in any Scottish league in the 50 odd years I've been watching. As much as I enjoy going to watch games at any level, I wouldn't pay money to watch a match at Livi on my travels home even if it was the only game available.

Looks like the first half is up now. Fill yir boots.

I'll refer everyone to the comments that were posted about how useless Porter/Dunne/Gorrin (to name a few) were after a game or two before making judgement on any of the new signings. (And the comments about how great Bob Malcolm was going to be are equally hilarious and wide of the mark).

So far, the entire second half has been uploaded, as has the highlights video. I assume the entire first half will follow soon.

Looks like Moult was bumped down the pecking order when Barkhuizen signed a new deal and Nugent returned to the club.

Not at all. I'm just saying that we likely haven't finished our business in the transfer market yet, and we beat Livi twice last season after we changed to our more expansive style. (The fact that we improved on last season's defeat at the same ground is actually a good thing).

We got a draw this time in game we lost in the equivalent away fixture last season. The last thing we need to do is build a team to counter Livi on an aberration of a pitch that we play on once or twice a season. As I said earlier, one of my biggest complaints about the Betfred structure is teams have to focus their preseason on winning 4 games against lower league opposition with no time to fully prepare for Premiership opponents. I can't imagine any of the new players have faced a team or a playing surface like this before. We need to get the current squad up to speed and playing to a style that suits them first. Then it can be tweaked and improved. There is no way that will happen in one game. If we bring in players with the aim to beat Livi one game a season, that would as stupid as it would be painful to watch.

Yep. Gillespie was signed as a first team keeper when we thought Carson was leaving. They are both top notch and both need to be starting, so unfortunately, one of them needs to move on.

I can honestly say I have never seen a decent game of football on a plastic pitch. It's especially bad when clubs like Livi intentionally prep them to prevent passing or running with the ball at your feet.

But the authorities claim that all our magnificent plastic pitches in Scotland meet the FIFA standards. The fact that the players don't want to play on them and the fans don't want to watch games on them isn't important. Players and fans don't count.

Sadly, trying to play the ball on the deck on that excuse for a pitch is something no team in the league can manage. Having said that, I'm not surprised it's a struggle. With the inevitable focus on winning our Betfred group, the new players haven't been exposed to Livi-style tactics on a surface that most non-League English clubs won't even allow. They need to learn quick because Accies are just around the corner waiting with more of the same.

My guess is that by January, they will have issued an updated directive and relax the rule.

Every game on the planet I think. The problem with the rule change is that it still needs the ref to interpret what hand/arm positions make the body "unnaturally bigger" - so there will be no consistency (except the OF get more than we do).

Last decent game I saw at Accies was when they had a terracing and grass.

Sadly, they have 10th written all over them again this season.

The explanation is we are one of the few teams that regularly fills (or nearly fills) the away stand, so they want to milk us for a few more quid.

Tickets are usually a police requirement rather than a club requirement. As for the number of turnstiles open, that is typically down to saving money,

To be fair, I can't imagine Accies fans asking to pay more to watch us play them. I suppose they must need some extra cash to help maintain that well manicured, bowling green of a pitch.

According to our official twitter, if you don't want to buy online at Livi's website you can buy them at the Almondvale Suite on Saturday,

If he's looking for first team football, he's not going to get ahead of Gallagher and Dunne.