August 2nd 2014: vs. Livingston in the League Cup

Another cup game, our first trip to Cliftonhill of the season, and we still hadn't made use of our season tickets yet. Before the game we stopped for a pint in Owen's, a classier pub than its proximity to the stadium would suggest. The food smelled great and I resolved to come early the following week to try some. 

 

The matchday programme was more substantial than I expected it to be, and particular mention must go to the exhaustive pie review which ran to 2 pages. Although no great lover of the football pie myself, the passion that the writer feels for the subject has to be admired.

Once again, Rovers put in a fine, battling performance against higher-rated opposition. I was surprised that there seemed to be less noise from the Rovers fans than there was at Airdrie, but perhaps that says more about the rivalry between the two North Lanarkshire clubs. Despite the 2 divisions separating them, Livi vs Rovers didn't seem like a one-sided contest at all. Albion punched above their weight and Livi looked poor. As a result, the game ended goalless, forcing extra time.

Livingston won a penalty in extra time and it looked to be game over, but I had a strange feeling that after last week's heroics Neil Parry could stop another important penalty. As it turned out, he didn't need to and the shot sailed over the bar. From this point on it looked like we were going to see our second penalty shootout in as many weeks, and so it came to pass.

We had a dream start when Parry yet again pulled off a fantastic save to deny Livi their first penalty. Unfortunately their keeper Darren Jamieson was in the mood to become a hero, pulling off two excellent saves to ultimately win the day for Livi.

Still, it was an impressive performance from the Rovers against a comparative footballing giant. As the rain battered us once again on our walk to the station our thoughts turned to the start of the league the following week, and we were both hopeful and optimistic about our chances of witnessing a successful season for our newly adopted team.