Livingston 1-1 Greenock Morton

CRAIG BARR has plenty of experience of playing in the First Division and SPL with Queen of the South and Gretna, and the Livingston defender insists Gary Bollan’s side could be sitting higher up the First Division table if they took their chances.

After drawing 1-1 at home to Greenock Morton on Saturday in what was the newly promoted team’s seventh draw in ten league games, the centre back says cutting out the odd defensive mistake and showing a sharper edge up front is necessary for the Lions.

“It’s a little bit frustrating, we’ve had so many draws week after week and we’ve got to start looking to turn them into three points. On Saturday we maybe didn’t deserve the three points as much as we have done previous weeks, but we certainly had the chances to take them.

“We’ve got to cut out the mistakes we’re making defensively. The Morton goal is really frustrating, but if you’re going up to a better league you’re going to get punished like we maybe weren’t last season, and we’re drawing games that last season we’d have easily been winning.

“It would be worse if we weren’t creating the chances. Obviously to create the chances and miss isn’t ideal, but at least we’re getting in the right areas.

“It’s not so much that we maybe deserved the three points, but after a combination of the last few weeks we feel like we could be higher up in the table.”

Morton were by far the better team in the opening stages, but it was Livi who had the first chance as a Mark Fotheringham free-kick was nodded wide by Barr.

The visitors responded by taking the lead. Fouad Bachirou fed David O’Brien, and he crashed the ball in off the crossbar from the edge of the box to give his side a deserved advantage.

Morton keeper Matt McGinley repelled a couple of Fotheringham free-kicks before the home side carved open the Morton defence to equalise. Iain Russell and Stefan Scougall combined to send Marc McNulty through one-on-one with McGinley and he was floored by a sprawling challenge from the keeper.

Russell stepped up to force the penalty into the bottom corner via the keeper’s gloves against his former side.

The goal seemed to spark life into a so far lethargic Livi team, and the increased pace with which they moved the ball across the pitch led to them more frequently penetrating the Morton back line. That momentum was scuppered by the half-time break, however, and Morton had the chances early in the second half. Andy McNeil pulled off a stunning block from O’Brien, while Paul Di Giacomo and Kevin McCann both found only the stand when presented with chances to retake the lead.

As the game raced to its conclusion, the Lions rediscovered their attacking impetus, with Keaghan Jacobs and Russell teeing up McNulty eight yards out – but despite beating McGinley, Stewart McCaffrey got back to scoop the ball off the line. Jacobs then his effort from 20 yards clip the post and go wide, before Bobby Barr did brilliantly to work space in the box, but squared the ball rather than taking on a shot.

In stoppage time, McNeil stopped the visitors from snatching the victory. From a corner he found the ball spiralling towards his own goal off a Livi defender’s head, but managed to somehow claw the ball round the post and secure a point for Gary Bollan’s men.

First published in the Edinburgh Evening News on 24/10/11

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Should he stay or should he go?

So that's it.

The fat lady has sung, they think it's all over, and it is. Scotland will - once again - not be gracing the finals of an international championship after a 3-1 defeat in Alicante to both World and European champions Spain ended their hopes of reaching Poland and Ukraine 2012.

Calls for the removal of the manager Craig Levein have swiftly followed the seventh successive unsuccessful qualifying campaign for the national side, his first in charge. And on paper, there is plenty evidence to support such a view.

Only three wins in eight matches and none by more than one goal (two of those against minnows Liechtenstein), a disastrous 4-6-0 formation in Prague two years ago that Levein still refuses to admit was a mistake and a collective one point from four games against the Czech Republic and Spain all point towards a campaign that was an unmitigated disaster.

Indeed, George Burley was booted after one failed effort; so why should the former Hearts, Dundee United and Leicester City manager escape similar punishment? What do we possess as a side now that we didn't when in a similar situation two years ago?

Some critics, whether they be journalists or supporters, or both, would have you believing not very much. But that conclusion is as dodgy as taking to the pitch without a recognised striker.

For a start, Levein evidently commands a respect that Burley never seemed to hold. It is only possible to know so much from the terraces, but the fact both Darren Fletcher and Kenny Miller both recently pulled out only to return to the squad when there existed half a chance of being fit to play speaks volumes. Perhaps the characters in question are more central to that outcome than the gaffer, but it is a long way from the days of multiple call offs, player rebellions and international retirements that plagued Burley's reign.

By and large the Scotland players seem to want to be part of Levein's plans, and from the accounts of the media who spend the most time with the squad they respect him and enjoy playing for him; arguably the key to international management where no prospect of a transfer window exists. Steven Fletcher admittedly remains a blot on that particular report card, and is a situation the Scotland boss may need to revisit before our World Cup 2014 Qualifying campaign gets underway in a little under a year if he is to succeed.

Secondly, the squad is moving forward, compared to undoubtedly backwards under Burley. The myth that international managers need to hit the ground running whether new to the arena or not, and that Levein's failure to do so is testament to his inability to do the job, needs debunked.

Walter Smith was hailed for his instant impact as Scotland boss - but what appears forgotten in the passing of time and under the pressure of convenience is that he had the majority of a failed World Cup qualifying campaign to shape his squad, learn the players and implement changes to a side that had become ragged, downtrodden and disorganised.

The 2006 World Cup Qualifying campaign started with draws at home to Slovenia and away to Moldova, as well as defeat to Norway at Hampden. The results ended in the removal of Berti Vogts as national team boss and the appointment of Smith. In the seven games that followed, Smith presided over three wins, two draws and two defeats - the same number of points amassed by Levein in his eight competitive matches in charge.

Admittedly, some matches featured arguably tougher opposition, but included a 1-0 defeat at home to Belarus and a disappointing 0-0 draw in Minsk. Over these games, Smith made mistakes, learned from them and built up a side ready to challenge for qualification in the next campaign, that would see Scotland run France and Italy within two points of a place at Euro 2008.

That his reign marked the beginning of what most fans would call our last successful spell and that he enjoyed such a bedding in period cannot be coincidence. Levein has made more glaring mistakes than Smith, and has probably suffered poorer results - but just like in the former Rangers manager's first competitive experience as the national boss, results and performances have begun to be drawn together as the set of matches reached it's conclusion.

Indeed, in the last year Levein's side has begun to play, in flashes during games, with a passing verve and creativity that seems somehow unbefitting of a Scotland side.

He has, like Smith, faced the task of putting together a team from the remnants of a damaging previous reign, and only now, like Smith, are the rewards beginning to materialise towards the end of another fruitless effort to make it to the big stage.

In contrast, Burley was presented with a side that was still warm from blazing an unbeaten trail from Hampden to Paris and back, that was primed and relatively experienced at international level with a moderately easy qualification group, and presided over a regression of mammoth proportions that resulted in the fragile mess Levein was handed on his first day in the job.

The starting point for Burley and Levein could not have been more different, and the direction being travelled in more contrasting.

It is not credible for a minute to suggest Levein has not exposed glaring failures of his own over the past two years. His stoic defence of the 4-6-0 formation remains a monkey on his back, and will continue to do so until he admits he simply got it wrong. Likewise, the tentative way in which he approached our opening qualifier - an away tie in Lithuania - perhaps epitomised both his novice uncertainty at that level as well as our immediate insecurities as a footballing nation, but must now be looked back on as an error of judgement.

He also must develop an alternative to the favoured 4-1-4-1 formation for occasions where variety is necessary and has not done so far; the match against Liechtenstein at Hampden was a dreadful performance played for the most part in a 4-4-2, and exposed his side's lack of ability to mix it up.

Yet there are positives to outweigh these realities. There is as genuine feel good factor amongst a squad desperate to play and the players are beginning to feel comfortable with his style. While an alternative is needed, the 4-1-4-1 formation that sees a lone striker twinned on either side by attacking wingers and stabilised by a solid central midfield trio, simply put, is beginning to mould a Scotland side with the potential to play good passing football.

Even in the heat of Alicante last night, against the might of Spain, the Scottish side showed the ability to patiently open up their opponents and pose more attacking problems than a simple punt up the pitch.

Levein now has a side that he has cultivated over a campaign, and that is ready - if it ever will be under this former Scotland international - to seriously challenge for qualifying. There can be no mistake about it: if it follows a similar path as our attempt to get to Poland and Ukraine, our 2014 World Cup qualification effort will be Levein's last as Scotland manager and most probably will be curtailed.

But the man has done the hard work that Smith put in in matches against Norway, Slovenia, Italy, Moldova and Belarus in World Cup 2006 qualifying, and deserves the chance to see that hard work bear fruits as Smith (and McLeish) got, and did in the Euro 2008 campaign.

It is because of this he differs from George Burley - the architect of that one true failure of a campaign - and is why he will in all probability rightfully lead the national team into matches against Serbia, Croatia, Belgium, Macedonia and Wales and hopefully on to Brazil. If he cannot learn from his mistakes, and cannot lead his side to realise the potential beginning to sprout from all corners of his squad, however, his removal as boss will merely be delayed by a few more glorious failures.

Livingston 1-1 Raith Rovers report

SUPERB SUB Livi striker Marc McNulty was delighted to open his league account for the season on Saturday, but was left disappointed that the Lions couldn't overcome plucky ten-man Raith Rovers to get all three points. . . 
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McNulty grabs a cup goal against Arbroath in August
Robert Speirs