Talk Livi: Tough task for the Lions against high-flying newcomers Ross County

Livingston take on last season’s Championship winners Ross County on Saturday, as the Lions make the long trip up to Dingwall still looking for a first win of the season.

We’re currently unbeaten in all competitions this season, so can take the confidence from that, but the Highlanders have had a brilliant start too – hammering Hamilton 3-0 on the opening day, and taking a point off Hearts, very nearly beating them at Tynecastle.

A 2-2 draw with St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park last time out was a tough result to take on the day, given our dominance for the majority of the match, though on paper, a draw away to the Saints is a very good result and last season I’d have been delighted with it; however, this year it feels like a huge opportunity wasted.

As a result we travel to Dingwall for our third Premiership match of the season yet to taste defeat and with County coming into the game off the back of a 3-2 cup defeat against Championship side Partick Thistle, it’s perhaps a great time to play them especially after our recent cup win over Forfar.

We started off on the back foot in that one and it took us a little while to get going after a few scares in the first 20 minutes, but once we started to control the game, there was only going to be one winner.

ROSS COUNTY 1-1 LIVINGSTON – 6.00*

Our reward for getting into the next round is a tough tie at home to Rangers, which is perhaps one of the worst ties we could’ve got, though looking on the bright side at least it’s at home and not at Ibrox!

Josh Mullin will be on the opposing side for Saturday’s game, which will be a strange one as he’s a League One winner with us and played a vital role in our Championship Play-Off winning campaign too, so I’m sure he’ll receive a warm welcome from the travelling Livingston support.

The winger is one of County’s most dangerous players, and we’ve got to be wary of his threats from out wide. Billy McKay, Ross Stewart and Brian Graham are all very decent strikers too, so we’ll do well to stop the hosts from scoring.

We look fantastic going forward this season, and I’m really confident that this Livingston side will score goals. We’ve been on the end of some criticism regarding our playing style over the last couple of seasons, being branded as a long-ball team, but against St Johnstone and Motherwell, we played some very nice football.

Hopefully we get our first win of the season, and our first away league win for nearly a year, but, I’m going to predict a draw, though a point up in Dingwall would be a very good result and I’d honestly take that right now.

All three points would be fantastic, and I definitely believe we’re more than capable of beating the Highlanders, but I think it’ll be a tight 1-1 draw.

LIVINGSTON TO WIN AND BOTH TEAMS TO SCORE – 6.40*

About Talk Livi

Calum Brown travels the length and breadth of the country to support Livingston FC and also contributes to the weekly podcast ‘Talk Livi’, which, along with fellow supporters Andrew Semple and Euan Rankine, allows supporters to voice their opinions about everything going on at the club.

Each episode contains exclusive audio from the manager and players, and also includes an interview with a member of the Livingston squad.