Article: Gillingham V Chesterfield Preview

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This season has seen Gills supporters witness contrasting performances from their side ranging from disgraceful to sublime. With the Kent club sitting perilously close to the relegation zone at one stage, the supporters couldn't be blamed for wanting the season to reach its conclusion as soon as possible. However, it appeared that after a string of (as I eluded to earlier) disgraceful performances most famously being the 2-0 defeat at home to Conference South outfit Dover, the Gills had finally pulled together and soon managed to miraculously turn into a side who played with a restored notion of spirit and desire that has been missing from the side for well over a year.
Despite the Gills recently returning to the unfamiliar feeling of defeat in recent weeks to the expense of Macclesfield and relegation threatened Barnet, Gillingham still have an outside chance of reaching the play-offs with just one last trip to make to Chesterfield. The Gills will be hoping to spoil the party and deny Chesterfield the league 2 title whilst sneaking into the play-offs.
As a lifelong Gillingham fan, I'm accustomed to the wide spectrum of emotion which comes with being a supporter of the club and hope that unlike the end of last season, this finale will see the Gills in ecstacy and not misery. Whilst I'm under no illusions that Chesterfield have a formidable home record and will be desperate to secure their title as League 2 Champions, I do sense a surprising amount of belief amongst the players when they travel away from home. Admittedly, recent home performances have been nothing short of abysmal, and some of the worst matches I've seen at Priestfield this year, but unlike Stimson's relegation side, the team seem to (in recent weeks) play with a real sense of freedom and belief when travelling away, as epitomised by the recent triumph over the Millers and demolition of Lincoln.
No matter what the final result, I for one am a lot happier with the performances Gillingham have shown in the second half of the season and less we forget, this effectively is still not Hessenthaler's side, with the majority stemming from Stimson's reign. The likes of Julian, Nutter and Fuller, all of which I regard as the most significant weak-links in the side, all derived from the infamously well known Mark Stimson.
With the likes of Mark McCammon departing, a player who is believed to be the second highest earner, this will crucially free up some money for wages which will hopefully provide Hessenthaler with the resources he needs to bring in more of his calibre of players.
I am aware of how damaging not succeeding promotion could be. I am pessimistic like most of the chances that Cody McDonald will be a Gills player next season and without promotion, I highly doubt Akinfenwa will be either. You're probably sick of my speculation for now and only time will tell what Gills fortune will be and come 5:00 Saturday, I hope we will all have to plan a few more days off in order to follow the Gills through the emotional roller-coaster that is the Play-offs. I'll leave you with a question which I hope you can all find the time to reply to. Do you think Gills will get in the play-offs, and also would finishing 8th be disastrous or would you like me, be contented.
Thanks for taking the time to read my article.

 

Great article.

 

Thanks Hoadie_BOI, glad you like it. I'll hopefully be writing further articles on the Gills if my articles are deemed of a good standard

 

TheBatchinator - well done for the article, my views may follow later, I've stuck this to the top of the Gills board until Saturday.

brb

 

Your writing is of very good standard to my understanding, Do you write for any column or Website.

 

Thanks BRB, much appreciated, do you know if it will be promoted to an article? And Hoadie Boi its my dream to become a sports journalist haha so I try to do a fair bit of writing when I'm not revising for my A levels. I'm a massive football fan and hope that my writing can generate opinion on topical issues

 

Yeah I normally create a few opinions between people of if they like me, sadly a few don't, Seems to be a few on the Newcastle board that have it in for me and I personally don't know why.

 

Good article Batchinator hope to read more in the future.

 

TheBatchinator - I've been trying to think of a response to your article, which has covered quite well your own fair views, which in parts will be shared with many a Gills supporter.

So let's start by answering your last question:

I'll leave you with a question which I hope you can all find the time to reply to. Do you think Gills will get in the play-offs, and also would finishing 8th be disastrous or would you like me, be contented.

Gillingham have every opportunity to make the play off's on Saturday, which on reflection of the league table is as worthy as the other two teams wanting the same position.

Would finishing 8th be disastrous?
Disappointing but not disastrous in comparison to our start to the season, which you have already mentioned, reached a low in the cup against Dover. However, whether it will be disastrous in regards to finances, well it certainly cannot be good for our increasing debt.

I would now give the remainder of my response/opinion by pasting a post I recently submitted on the alternative site:

Do we have the players and management to actually compete in League One next season?
.................................................
Yes we do otherwise we would not be on the verge of the play offs, however, would we survive in League One with our current squad, probably not.

I've been thinking about this one recently and I feel our squad is to big with not enough all round quality.

Take recently against Rotherham, Hessy was able to make many changes to the team, good on the day but it did not resolve his overall problems.

Whereas with hindsight, if he had stuck with the team that had been on a 16 game unbeaten run and resolved the real tactical issues - let's look at the players he left out at the start against Macclesfield...

Lawrence
Fuller
Jack Payne

We are a League Two side, in how much debt but we've got a squad big enough to leave players like these out?

Our frailties IMO against Macclesfield were Sinclair then in turn Richards, who has only just recently replaced Gowling.

Every game I watch in disbelief, as we try to hoof the ball over the top, only to watch it come straight back at us again, as either Cody is trying to crick his neck like a giraffe for a ball he is never going to get, or Bayo is being climbed over by 2/3 of the opposition.

Barcham IMO has been the undoing of many teams this season down the left, so why at times when begging for the ball is he not getting it, Lawrence recently it appeared was the only one with the brains to have worked this one out - I can remember Lawrence bringing the ball forward for Barcham, it certainly panicked the opposition defence.

So that leads me to ask, why does Julian not play it from the back - simple because despite the size of our squad, we don't appear to have the quality (accept for the mentioned) to bring it forward.

Martin, now don't get me wrong about this guy, I'm sure some of you rate him and there is something that I'm not seeing yet, maybe time will prove me wrong but he just does not appear to me to work with Barcham.

So yes we want promotion, however, during pre season, time for a clear out and build around a smaller squad, maybe then we will be able to afford the price tag for Cody!

 

Excellent article young man. (As Ray Wilkins might put it).

To answer your questions, no I don't think we will make the play offs (but I really hope we do), and no, 8th isn't a disaster but is very disappointing, having come this far since the depths of November. I will travel to Chesterfield expecting yet another final day downer, but I'll be giving my vocal all to try to help the lads make it a day to remember.

 

Will we make the play-offs? I'm afraid I think the Speirites will get the point they need, and we will be pipped.

Is 8th a disaster? No... but serious changes will be needed over the summer:

Problems with our current squad:

- As some people have mentioned, it's too big, and is therefore a waste of money. Do we really need Bentley and Jackman and Maher and Spiller and Payne and Oli and Rooney? The old Stimson disease of flooding your squad with mediocre midfielders!

- Our best 2 players - McDonald and Akinfenwa are LEAVING (allegedly)! This SCARES me. What on Earth are we going to do? Play Stefan Payne and Dennis Oli up front??

- Mark McCammon - why on Earth is he still here? Is he just sitting on his couch every Saturday, receiving his bumper pay packet?

- Pleeeease sort out the defence! Lawrence is a good start. We need someone properly good/reliable as his partner. Not Gowling or Richards. And I really am doubting whether King will ever be good enough again... At LB, Nutter has always been far too unreliable, even at Lg 2 level.

 

Thank you all for your comments, I'm currently planning to write more articles for you avid gills fans to get your teeth into. Hope you enjoy my further writing. UTG

 

That will be great, You will be a welcome addition to the website and hope we can all get on.

 

good luck to the gills on saturday

 

Good luck to you guys on Saturday. I obviously want the home side to win but considering our form of late a loss wouldnt come as a great surprise. Im in limbo a bit here becuase "Chesterfield Champions" has a very nice ring to it but I have a soft spot for the Gills (plus your supporters are some of the most well behaved i've seen at our shiny new stadium **cough cough Rotherham and Port Vale**).

Actually, thinking about it, I dont want Bury to pip us more than I want Chesterfield to win it. Sour grapes and all that!

Again, all the best. Statistics show you will beat us but you never know!

 

P.S. TheBatchinator - I echo Hoadie and BRB's comments: good article. Us north of Watford cant write proper like dat!!

 

Thanks, Good luck to you aswell on your game.

 

8th would be a failure. Hess knew the players he had when he predicted an auto spot. the bookies made us favourites to go up so not even making the play offs cant be looked at anything other than a failure.

I see the bad start as irrelevant because the 5 wins on the bounce put us back up there -If you constructed the table since those 5 wins then we would be about where we are now ie about 8th. and over the last few months thats a fair reflection.

The last 4 home games have been unacceptable. The results and the performance and that ultimately rests with the manager. You can forgive a one off or a couple of bad performances but a 4 on the bounce at home at the critical time of the season casts doubts on hess's ability

Hess can answer those doubts.Hess needs the summer to make changes to build a team meet his vision and he should certainly be given another season.

(Alternatively we get simo back to manage home games and let Hess manage the away games.)

 

8th would be a failure, once we were in the play offs we should have battling for the top 3 positions and would have done so without our last 4 home results. We should have had another 9 points now, i think we will fail even to reach play offs. Lets hope we can manage at least a point and hope one of the other team loses.

 

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