newhavenhibby

Was at the home game 2 weeks before. Unfortunately couldn't get to the away leg but a great effort by the side that night.

Even if the gers beat Leipzig I cannot see them beating West Ham who are stronger in every department. ........although Frankfurt may still have a say. Only good thing from last night was they will have some tired limbs after extra time and may feel their exertions on Sunday v Celtic in the semi final. Feel sorry for the people and town of Seville if Rangers get there. 'mon Leipzig / or hammers / Frankfurt if needed.

Sid and Dixie, two of my all time favourites from a time when I followed Villa home and away. So sad to hear this news and best of luck to them and their families.

Got on for just under half an hour replacing their flying winger Forrest, without much impact. However against a very good Hearts team it was always going to be difficult.

Bruce Anderson, the main Livingston striker has just injured his ankle and could be out for a while. Could be an opportunity for Caleb to step up and get some game time. They play tomorrow at Hearts so will keep an eye on the teams and the game.

Really think his time is up at Livi and needs to come back to Villa for them to look at other loan options where he can get some game time. Martindale, apparently, is quite an intense person to get on with and am wondering if there is a clash of personalities with Caleb.

Don't think so. Martindale has an issue with him and the physicality of the game up here. Says he is trying to get him ready through training but only seems to make the bench every other game?? Has been talk that there is a section of Livi fans who have been giving him stick although didn't hear anything when they played us a couple of weeks ago and he was in the squad that day. They play today v Celtic so will have to wait and see if he makes the bench and more importantly gets on the park.

Our forum is discussing exactly the same issues of certain fans shouting abuse at players who are out of favour. It, unfortunately, is part of the modern game ( especially in all seater stadia) with the crowd only really getting loud when something on the pitch gets everyone out of their seats or the team are playing really well and the stadium gets going with singing and chanting. If things aren't going so well then everybody sits back in their seats, starts to look at their phones and these abusive fans can be heard. Most of it is frustration with their side ( as all fans will feel) but this is no excuse for ranting especially when the player is close by as Mings was yesterday. Bad news if they have a Season Ticket next to you. Perhaps safe standing will bring back a strong core of vocal song and support which can get the atmosphere raised a notch or two throughout the game and drown a few of these clowns out. Certainly works at Celtic Park.......mind you they are usually winning

Jake Doyle-Hayes scored his first goals for us yesterday. Both strikes from outside the box with the second in particular being spectacular having controlled a high ball with his chest and hitting it on the volley into the top corner. Needed it as he was going through a bad patch with the fans getting on his back having had a good start at the club.

Bit of a gamble to be honest with no previous experience of being in the hot seat. Trying to get us playing like Belgium ( where he was assistant) ............without the players with the talent. At present we are playing out from the back all the time and haven't the skill to escape the high press that teams are now putting on us. We have been caught umpteen times just outside our box leading to goals against and a load of near misses and lucky escapes. He was unfortunate that just after he arrived the Board sold our best attacking player, Martin Boyle, to a team in Saudi and now we have a distinct lack of pace up front. Time will tell

Great result for the Gers. They certainly raised their game today as they have shown one or two signs of a dip in form in recent weeks giving a last minute to equaliser to Ross County and losing to Celtic. Well done Rangers...............and you won't hear me say that too often.

I think the substitution was more a question of wasting time and disrupting play ( refs never add on enough) as Aberdeen were pressing for a late equaliser. He came on in the 83rd and left at 90. I think Martindale wanted to leave on the other players who he probably thought were more up for the fight. There is also a question as to whether he was receiving abuse from the home supporters which if true is very hard on a young lad starting out on his senior career. Livingston have a great guy second in charge .......Marvin Bartley. Hopefully he can help sort this out. Haven't looked to see if he is in the squad today for the Hearts cup tie but will keep an eye on it.

Absolutely spot on............yes it is a poor standard but extremely physical and the games are often very scrappy. We have a lad on loan from Norwich City ( Rocky Bushiri) and he has made frequent comments since coming into the 1st team 3 weeks ago, it is taking him some time to adjust to the robust nature of the game. In 3 games he has already had to change his boots twice as studs have been put through them.........how he finished the Hearts game I have no idea after he posted a pic of his bloodied foot and boot. Fortunately being a centreback he is a big lad and enjoys the rough stuff Caleb is slighter built and being a forward likes to beat players with quick feet..........unfortunately up here he becomes a target for the cloggers of Scottish football. In England the defenders will try to guide the opposition player where they know there is less danger, ie: show them the inside or outside and wait for an opportunity to knick the ball or block a pass or cross. Up here if you are known to be a player like Caleb then they will be straight into him and will rotate the fouls so the ref doesn't build up a count against any one player. He has not been given a chance by Martindale yet who prefers to play the brick outhouse Nouble through the middle and Alan Forrest wide left. Unfortunately it doesn't leave much opportunity for Caleb to make an impact. If I was Villa I'd pull him now especially if some lower IQ Livi fans are giving him grief........idiots. That can be a problem when playing at the "Toni Macaroni" in that they don't have many fans so if a group want to start shouting abuse you can hear every insult.............bring him home I think yesterday he was used by Martindale simply to waste time as Aberdeen were pushing for an equaliser . No reports of an injury

Came on in the 84th minute today but taken off again in the 90th ..........presume injured so will try to find out.

Blimey, as good as that!!

Seen more of Kyogo Furuhashi before he got injured , again. He certainly has a few cheating tactics in his armoury.............the one trying to fool the ref v Hearts against John Souttar was one of the most outrageous I've seen ever. The best against us was in the Cup final where he took a huge dive, not knowing our player had stopped and there was a clear yard of space.

Never going to happen in the modern game..........the best that occurs now is finishing third and being the best of the rest. Not the only League to be dominated by 2 or 3 clubs......wonder where the English Premier League will be in 5 years......Liverpool and Man City anyone?? Its not all about top players earning mega money / week but the passion and history of a club and its supporters, which is why Celtic Park was packed to the rafters to "watch that" If they had allowed some Rangers fans in it would have been even more raucous. OK Celtic and Rangers players are the best paid in Scotland by a country mile but compared to the top 2 divisions in England and possibly some teams in the 1st Division they are well behind in terms of wages..........not surprising that you are not going to see the same levels of performance. ( couple of years ago Adam Rooney left the "third" club in Scotland at the time, position and wages ( Aberdeen) to join Salford........paid more money ) I was at the Edinburgh derby the night before and the standard was even worse but the game was exciting to watch ( being there and not sat at home in front of a screen with a beer in one hand and a bag of crisps in the other), plenty of goalmouth action, controversy and the atmosphere was fantastic between the two sets of fans . This is why I still go to football especially live and underneath the lights.......absolute magic. It was made even more special in the 13th minute where the two sets of fans joined in a minutes applause for a young Hearts supporter, Devin Gordon, who at 13 felt he had to step in front of a train. Even the "Block Seven" Hibs fans had made a special banner for him with a green and maroon heart on it and when they put his picture up on the screens it moved many people to tears. Rivlas but coming together in adversity. The ref even had to stop play for it to happen and all players and staff joined in. Both sets of strikers failed to score from very good positions and it sits better with me that they are only on 2k - 5k per week ( with the exception of perhaps the Hearts boy Ellis Simms who is on loan from Everton so suspect they are still topping up his wage? Ironically he missed 3 or 4 glorious chances) and not the mega money in England. At least two of the Japanese Celtic players will move South if they continue their current form........money talks Finally well done to the supporters and followers of Raith Rovers in getting the Board to change their stance on employing David Goodwillie. However as Val McDermed says the people who thought this was a good decision are still running the club so there needs to be change. Nice touch by Queen of the South when they played Raith the day after the announcement of DG they wore their third pink kit in partnership with the white ribbon campaign standing up for fighting to stop violence against women.

Watching Caleb in warm up, he looked quite lightweight compared to some of the other "bruisers" Livi have, so feel he won't get too much game time up here? As I said earlier he would have to displace Alan Forrest ( brother of James at Celtic) who today looked the real deal.

Sorry lads, Caleb never got on as they already had too much for us lol. From what I saw Livi have quite a lot up front including pace so be interesting to see how much game time he gets.............Alan Forrest for pace and Joel Nouble for strength and aggression will keep him out the side, (+ not forgetting Omeonga )

Only got on for 10 minutes when Livi had to change from a neat defensive unit into chasing the game following the Rangers goal after 70 odd minutes. Not much time for him. I expect Martindale will come to our place on Saturday with a more expansive game plan so hopefully I will see more of Caleb.

Starts on bench tonight at Ibrox...........expect him to get on at some stage.

As long as he does it tonight and not on Saturday..

Apart from when they play each other, both the uglies have their away games televised and not the run of the mill home games. Therefore tomorrow, Hearts v Celtic will be the choice. Livingston play us on Saturday at Easter Road so will watch Caleb closely ( more than I normally watch the opposition players lol) and report back on the game he has. With us in transition he may well find more space than normal in the attacking third.

Matindale ( Livi manager) thought he needed more time to get his mindset / fitness a wee bit better and that the game up here has been a bit of a shock to him. He thought he needs to work at being a little more aggressive / stronger when in possession. Martindale says he will coach this into him. I watched some of it and thought he was doing OK, as did their fans vote online who thought he was good. Think he will do just fine and both games so far have been on their cr*p artificial pitch...........lets see what he can do in the wide open spaces at Ibrox and Celtic Park.

Will keep an eye on him up here at Livi..........interesting to see how he copes with the plastic pitches, physicality and of course the weather. Will certainly get game time. Lets hope he does really well and gets back to Villa............unlike Jake Doyle-Hayes who eventually ended up with us. Good luck to him.