There is a reason why Livingston are sitting fourth in the Premiership table, potentially just four points behind Hearts in third if they win their game in hand. They are the most organised side in the league and are formidable opponents on their own patch.
When you think about it, even in games where we might have score a few goals, there is no such thing as an easy game against David Martindale’s side and this afternoon will be no different.
So far this season we have made things difficult for ourselves, gifting them a couple of early goals, which plays perfectly into their game plan of being hard to break down, and being direct either on the counter attack or in getting the ball as far up the park as possible.
After rotating against Partick Thistle last week, it would be a surprise if we don’t see most of the players who were on the bench return to the starting line up but Michael Beale has hinted at a shortage of bodies in midfield, hardly ideal a week before a major cup final.
As we’ve seen throughout this season, when we are on it, we are a very good side, however, the flip side of this is when we are pedestrian in our build up, taking too many touches before playing simple passes and choosing the wrong option in the final third, we look like we are never going to score or break teams down.
The new gaffer has built up some decent momentum, ahead of our biggest game of the season it wouldn’t do any harm to put a rare 90 minute performance in with no silly mistakes at the back – can it be third time lucky against Livi?